tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20945623840388687342018-08-12T17:27:26.548-05:00A Library Girl's Familiar DiversionsRead-alikes, watch-alikes, and reviews/commentary for the things that entertain meA Library Girlnoreply@blogger.comBlogger274125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-28137313088152339822018-08-06T00:59:00.002-05:002018-08-06T00:59:54.527-05:00REVIEW: Go For It, Nakamura! (manga) story and art by Syundei, translation by Amber Tamosaitis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iTs2l-gCsuw/W2fZcGNUh1I/AAAAAAAAEoQ/nKCSEMThfOoMJgNZEpURpXeIZEjWGDa2QCLcBGAs/s1600/go_for_it_nakamura.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iTs2l-gCsuw/W2fZcGNUh1I/AAAAAAAAEoQ/nKCSEMThfOoMJgNZEpURpXeIZEjWGDa2QCLcBGAs/s320/go_for_it_nakamura.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>[This review includes slight spoilers.]<br /><i> </i><br /><i>Go For It, Nakamura!</i> is comedy with gay high school romance elements. I want to emphasize, however, that it isn't a romance. If the series ever gets another volume (maybe it already has, just not in English?), I could see it becoming a romance, but this particular volume is not.<br /><br />Nakamura is an awkward, introverted, and occasionally uncomfortably intense 16-year old. He adores his pet octopus, Icchan. He has no friends and practises conversations in his head all the time but has difficulty actually having them in real life. He also happens to be gay. He has an enormous crush on his popular and outgoing classmate, Hirose, and his goal is to 1) actually talk to him and 2) become friends with him.<br /><br />I picked this up on a whim. Happily, this turned out to be a good decision. For the most part, I loved this volume.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />I don't handle secondhand embarrassment well and found myself having to take breaks several times while reading this. Nakamura was painfully awkward in ways that, yes, were played for humor but were also often realistic enough that awkward and/or introverted readers could probably find something to relate to. One particular horrible moment Nakamura remembered exactly matched a horrible memory from my own middle school years. Seeing it on-page was a bit horrifying.<br /><br />I rooted for Nakamura, but I also had issues with him. I disliked how completely focused he was on Hirose. He had zero friends, and yet when his efforts to talk to and impress Hirose led to him meeting and talking to Hirose's friends, he never once considered them to be potential friends. Instead, he viewed anyone who was even vaguely close to Hirose as rivals and possible sources of information about Hirose. He also didn't seem to realize that a lot of the things he was doing to try to get to know Hirose better were kind of creepy, like eavesdropping on Hirose's conversations to find out what sorts of things he liked.<br /><br />Chapter 2 contained one of my least favorite moments, a single panel in which Nakamura had a sudden tentacle rape fantasy about Hirose. And Chapter 4 was a little weird, introducing a fujoshi artist who developed a crush on Nakamura. I'm still not sure whether she was aware that Nakamura liked Hirose, although I don't see how she could've missed it considering the nature of Nakamura's request. <br /><br />Aside from those things, however, I really enjoyed this volume. The artwork was well-done and reminded me a lot of Rumiko Takahashi. And the humor usually worked for me, despite my secondhand embarrassment issues. It was focused on Nakamura's awkwardness and his efforts to accomplish <i>something </i>where his secret crush was concerned, but it didn't feel, to me, like Syundei was being overly cruel to Nakamura or making fun of him for being gay. (Be warned, however, that there are a couple instances of homophobia. At one point, for example, Nakamura's teacher laughed at the idea of two boys dating.)<br /><br />The last couple chapters had some surprisingly serious moments, as Nakamura began to lose hope that he'd ever truly connect with Hirose and become his friend. He compared himself to his effortlessly cool teacher, who Hirose certainly idolized and, Nakamura feared, possibly had a crush on, and found himself focusing on all the ways he fell short.<br /><br />The ending was sweet. I considered it reasonably satisfying, although some readers might not feel the same. Syundei gave Nakamura a bit of happiness but left plenty of room for the story to be continued. Although the romance fan in me might have liked something more, I think it would have felt rushed and weird - not to mention there'd still be the issue of Nakamura's potentially unhealthy level of focus on Hirose, and what that would mean for any sort of romantic relationship between them. One interesting thing: This may be the only work I've ever read where the closeted main character is still closeted by the end, but not unhappy.<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><br />A couple full-color pages, character profiles for Nakamura and Hirose, and a 2-page comic-style afterword by the author. In the afterword, Syundei talks a little about each chapter's creation - I wonder if the "tentacle rape" panel would have made it in if Syundei had known the series was going to continue? A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-53024536085064769902018-07-30T22:31:00.001-05:002018-07-30T22:31:31.271-05:00REVIEW: Honey So Sweet (manga, vol. 1) story and art by Amu Meguro, translated by Katherine Schilling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E98Dagwch_M/W1_VeO_y0EI/AAAAAAAAEn4/NsEPmDlAcqYpfTChowPJ4knNKo8SZTGEQCLcBGAs/s1600/honey_so_sweet-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E98Dagwch_M/W1_VeO_y0EI/AAAAAAAAEn4/NsEPmDlAcqYpfTChowPJ4knNKo8SZTGEQCLcBGAs/s320/honey_so_sweet-1.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><i>Honey So Sweet</i> is a high school romance series. I got this volume via interlibrary loan.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />All Nao Kogure wants is to avoid attracting too much attention and to hopefully make a few friends. Unfortunately, for some reason Taiga Onise, the guy everyone in her class is afraid of and who punched some upperclassmen on his first day of high school, has taken an interest in her. When he asks her to be his girlfriend ("Would you please date me with marriage in mind?" - coming on a <i>little</i> strong), she's sure that what he really wants is for her to be his slave for the rest of high school. She worries that if she says no to him, he'll torment her or hurt her. Seeing no other solution, Nao says "yes" and prepares for the worst.<br /><br />As it turns out, Onise's bad reputation is a misunderstanding and he's actually a pretty nice guy. The more Nao gets to know him, the more she likes him. Too bad she's in love with someone else: her uncle, Sou, who's been raising her since her parents died. In this volume, Nao and Onise also gradually become friends with Kayo Yashiro, a gorgeous but aloof girl, and Ayumu Misaki, a good-looking boy with a prickly personality.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />This was...okay. There were indeed quite a few sweet moments, but there were also a few things that threw me off.<br /><br />The fact that Onise knew from the start that Nao only agreed to date him because she was scared of him was a little icky and at odds with his overall sweetness, even though he was eventually honest with her and admitted that he knew. Also, Nao wholeheartedly agreeing to continue being friends with Onise, knowing that he still liked her romantically, seemed like a bad idea. Still, I liked seeing Nao and Onise get to know each other. Onise's habit of bulldozing his way into people's lives balanced out Nao's desire to simultaneously blend into the background and somehow make friends. He also seemed to be encouraging Misaki out of his own prickly shell.<br /><br />One big thing in this volume that didn't appeal to me was Nao's crush on her uncle. Who is related to her by blood and who has raised her since she was six or so years old. There's a definite squick factor there, and I hope this aspect of the series gets phased out <i>quickly</i>. The end of this volume indicated that I might be lucky in that regard. Either that, or Onise's words will just make Nao cling to her crush on her uncle more tightly. Please, no.<br /><br />I've requested the next volume via ILL, so I guess I'll find out. Crossing my fingers that volume 2 is the end of Nao's crush on her uncle, and the beginning of even cuter scenes with Nao, Onise, Misaki, and Yashiro. I want to find out the story behind Onise's part in the umbrella flashback, why Misaki's so angry, and what the deal is with Yashiro.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-37845579165904087942018-06-19T06:27:00.000-05:002018-06-19T06:27:35.784-05:00REVIEW: The Seven Deadly Sins (manga, vol. 1) by Nakaba Suzuki, translated by Christine Dashiell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k3ymwVbWgvg/WyjiMJ2GzhI/AAAAAAAAEa0/pCUdp1q-FTsfINwdhCVkBESmCXOK7Dz_QCLcBGAs/s1600/seven_deadly_sins-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k3ymwVbWgvg/WyjiMJ2GzhI/AAAAAAAAEa0/pCUdp1q-FTsfINwdhCVkBESmCXOK7Dz_QCLcBGAs/s320/seven_deadly_sins-1.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><i>The Seven Deadly Sins</i> is a fantasy series.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br /><i>The Seven Deadly Sins</i> stars Meliodas, a tavern owner who serves utterly terrible food and whose only companion is a talking pig named Hawk. One day a mysterious "Rust Knight" arrives at Meliodas' tavern. The Knight, who turns out to really be Princess Elizabeth, is looking for the Seven Deadly Sins, a chivalric order made up of seven criminals who each bear the mark of a beast upon their bodies. The Holy Knights disbanded the Seven Deadly Sins years ago after they were accused of plotting to overthrow the kingdom.<br /><br />Now, however, the Holy Knights have done what they accused the Seven Deadly Sins of trying to do, and Princess Elizabeth believes the Seven Deadly Sins are the kingdom's last hope. Luckily for her, Meliodas is not only one of those famed warriors, specifically the Dragon Sin of Wrath, he's looking for the others too.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />I got this first volume in PDF form via a Humble Bundle a while back. Interestingly, the file was formatted in such a way that changing to "two page layout" actually properly placed the pages for right-to-left reading - definitely a step up from the <i>Inuyashiki </i>volume formatting.<br /><br />This was technically okay. The artwork was actually pretty good, more detailed than I expected. I loved the way Suzuki drew the foggy forest. I occasionally had trouble following some of the action, but I think that was more due to the size of the PDF pages on my monitor (I didn't feel like zooming in) than to any problems with the artwork.<br /><br />The fantasy aspect felt a bit generic, but that could change. This first volume was light on details as to what, exactly, each of the Seven Deadly Sins could do. Meliodas appeared to have super-strength - I wasn't sure if his broken sword was anything special or really just a random broken sword. One of the other Seven Deadly Sins, Diana, was a giant, but apparently that had nothing to do with the mark she bore (Serpent Sin of Envy) as a member of the Seven Deadly Sins. No information was given as to what the different beasts signified, although I assume they're important in some way and are maybe tied in to what each of the members of the group can do.<br /><br />Hawk, Meliodas' animal companion, was reasonably cute and got points for calling out Meliodas' frequent gross behavior. Unfortunately, the character also added to the series' overall generic feel. I was reminded of <i>Fairy Tail</i>'s Plue and Happy - it seems like every shounen fantasy adventure group needs at least one cute and comedic animal character.<br /><br />The series' overly generic feeling is part of the reason I'm not sure I want to continue on. My other issue with this series was how much fan service and boob and butt grabbing it contained. The first time Meliodas met Princess Elizabeth, he groped her breasts while she was still unconscious, supposedly to confirm that she was female. From that point on, it felt like the story was a series of action scenes glued together with boob and butt grabbing jokes. Readers were supposed to laugh at Meliodas' antics and Princess Elizabeth's reactions (she mostly either didn't notice what he was doing or dismissed it as harmless - Hawk was more disgusted and upset than she was). I not only didn't think it was funny, I found myself becoming increasingly annoyed. It was a lazy and gross way for Suzuki to try to get some laughs.<br /><br />There's a Humble Bundle available for another 24 hours that has volumes 1 to 22 of this series. Wikipedia tells me that <i>The Seven Deadly Sins</i> is still ongoing and is currently up to 31 volumes, so this is a pretty significant chunk. That said, I'm not sure that I want to take the plunge.<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><br />Eight pages of design sketches for <i>The Seven Deadly Sins</i>.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-87189457147477447002018-06-09T18:34:00.003-05:002018-06-09T18:38:02.345-05:00REVIEW: Inuyashiki (manga, vol. 1) by Hiroya Oku, translated by Stephen Paul<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_opYzhSx_C0/WxxhT-et6MI/AAAAAAAAEZE/RIsP2o5fSsIHt2SK8I9nZKdsxOqY6uDFACLcBGAs/s1600/inuyashiki-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_opYzhSx_C0/WxxhT-et6MI/AAAAAAAAEZE/RIsP2o5fSsIHt2SK8I9nZKdsxOqY6uDFACLcBGAs/s320/inuyashiki-1.jpg" width="217" /></a></div><i>Inuyashiki </i>is a science fiction series.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />Inuyashiki is a 58-year-old man who is unloved by everyone in his life. When he moves his family to a new home, all everyone does is gripe about it - how small the place is, how cheap he is, etc. He has a young son and teen daughter, both of whom are embarrassed by how old he is. They also don't respect him and don't bother to hide this fact. When Inuyashiki proposes that the family get a dog, no one will come with him, so he ends up selecting a Shiba, Hanako, on his own. It seems that Hanako is the only being in the world that Inuyashiki has to live for, until one fateful evening, when he and a teenage boy end up forever changed.<br /><br />I picked up the first couple volumes of this in a Humble Bundle a while back. There's Humble Bundle with more volumes of this and other series up right now, and I'm still debating whether to get it.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />This first volume of <i>Inuyashiki </i>didn't leave me wishing I had more in my collection. The characters were, for the most part, horrible. I doubt any of the people in Inuyashiki's family ever genuinely loved each other, and the world of this series seemed to be entirely populated with bullies. The only character I even vaguely liked was the dog, and something about this series makes me suspect that the dog isn't going to make it through the whole thing.<br /><br />The artwork definitely wasn't to my taste. There was something slightly unsettling and repulsive about it, even before Inuyashiki discovered that there was something strange going on with his body. Maybe this was intentional, but the result was that I didn't really want to spend more time than necessary looking at pages and panels.<br /><br />The sci-fi aspects were weird and a little hand-wavy. The goals of the beings Inuyashiki and Shishigami, the teenage boy, encountered were never stated outright, but they seemed to want to avoid causing a stir, or perhaps to avoid affecting humans with their appearance too much. Either way, they failed miserably, and their failure seems likely to grow more pronounced in later volumes.<br /><br />I'm really not impressed with this series so far.<br /><br /><b>Extras:&nbsp;</b><br /><br />Two pages of translation notes. A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-34314751171047516192018-05-06T17:02:00.001-05:002018-05-06T17:12:17.463-05:00REVIEW: Yukarism (manga, vol. 4) by Chika Shiomi, translated by John Werry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-njEuW4nNN3U/Wu94iJQrxtI/AAAAAAAAEPE/HiCWT0NgaC8dx-NMTea3ApaLWDzR4rrrQCLcBGAs/s1600/yukarism-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-njEuW4nNN3U/Wu94iJQrxtI/AAAAAAAAEPE/HiCWT0NgaC8dx-NMTea3ApaLWDzR4rrrQCLcBGAs/s320/yukarism-4.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><i>Yukarism </i>is a fantasy series with historical elements due to the way the main character keeps getting transported back to his past life as an oiran. This is the final volume in the series.<br /><br />Parts of my review might be considered <b>spoilers</b>. <br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />It has become very clear that if Yukari can't figure out how to break his, Mahoro, and Satomi's connections to their past lives, then history will repeat itself whether they wish it to or not. Yukari learns that Yumurasaki's death was much more terrible and tragic than he realized, and he becomes determined to find a better solution than Mahoro/Takamura killing Satomi/Kazuma.<br /><br />This is one of those rare short manga series that's actually pretty decent. It's a bit inconsistent throughout, and the first volume is, unfortunately, probably the weakest, but this final volume was excellent.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Considering that the series started off more focused on Yukari/Yumurasaki, I was surprised at how important a character Mahoro became. I'm still not a fan of Takamura's scenes in volume 1, but I really liked how things turned out between Mahoro/Takamura and Yukari/Yumurasaki in the end, even if the explanation for Yumurasaki's numerous rejections of Takamura's offers to buy her freedom was a little awkward. Too bad it took them one and a half lifetimes to finally have a proper conversation, although sadly Yumurasaki probably couldn't have spoken so freely when she was still alive.<br /><br />The action and tragedy in the pages leading up to the volume's climax reminded me of other historical series I've loved, like <i>Peacemaker Kurogane</i> (I've only seen the anime so far, which has some sad bits but stops prior to the <i>really </i>sad stuff). All flames, bloodshed, and crying. Thankfully, the series as a whole didn't end tragically, although I was afraid it would. And, oh, I worried about Mahoro in the aftermath, poor girl.<br /><br />I did have some questions about Mahoro and Yukari's relationship in the end, and how things would work out considering their differing memories, but for the most part I found this to be a satisfying ending. I'm tempted to buy myself a copy of this last volume because I enjoyed it enough that I could see myself wanting to reread it. But, knowing me, I'd then decide I should own the first three volume too, and my shelf space is at a premium.<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><ul><li>Two pages of translator's notes. </li></ul>A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-84649121041511170202018-04-19T12:03:00.001-05:002018-04-19T12:06:11.242-05:00REVIEW: I Am Here! (manga, vol. 2) by Ema Toyama, translated by Joshua Weeks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UjCyrJTxEUE/WtiMHJdgqyI/AAAAAAAAENA/NBsiWci0NgAhPoa8cE8lCj3l_whM1pcoACLcBGAs/s1600/i_am_here-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UjCyrJTxEUE/WtiMHJdgqyI/AAAAAAAAENA/NBsiWci0NgAhPoa8cE8lCj3l_whM1pcoACLcBGAs/s320/i_am_here-2.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><i>I Am Here!</i> is a romance manga. I got this omnibus volume via interlibrary loan.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />The first omnibus volume introduced Hikage, Hinata, and Teru. Hikage starts off practically invisible to everyone around her except Hinata and Teru. In the first volume, we learned that Hinata has a crush on Hikage. Hinata's jealous fans - one girl in particular - start bullying Hikage for spending too much time with him. In the end she's able to stand up to them.<br /><br />Whereas the first omnibus volume was focused more on Hikage and her efforts to make friends, this omnibus volume was focused more on Hinata and Teru and the mystery of Black Rabbit's identity. Hikage is convinced that Hinata is Black Rabbit, a possibility that's initially appealing but then fills her with horror and embarrassment. Black Rabbit is her kindest and most supportive online friend. If Hinata is Black Rabbit, that could mean that her "friend" was really laughing about her behind her back as he was encouraging her to talk to him more. Hinata keeps denying that he's Black Rabbit, but he's clearly hiding something.<br /><br />Things become even more difficult for Hikage when Teru realizes that he has a crush on Hikage too and the two best friends, Hinata and Teru, ask her to choose between them. While Hikage tries to figure out what to do, the wedge between Hinata and Teru starts to tear their entire class in two.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />I felt so-so about the first omnibus volume, but since this series is so short I felt like I should finish it anyway. This final omnibus had some parts I liked and some I loathed.<br /><br />I liked the closer look at Hinata and Teru's friendship. Now that I know Black Rabbit's secret (which I didn't clue into while reading the first volume but figured out a few pages into this one), I have a different perspective on what was going on between Hinata and Teru in the first half of the series. The first half of this volume, when Hinata and Teru were still actively trying to make sure that whatever each of them might be feeling for Hikage didn't hurt their friendship, was fine. Unfortunately, it fell apart when the love triangle reared its ugly head.<br /><br />I hated the love triangle. Once Teru realized that he was in love with Hikage, his and Hinata's relationship devolved into a competition over Hikage. Teru was a liar, too - he'd say that he didn't want to make things difficult for Hikage, but then he'd explicitly ask her to choose between him and Hinata. Since Hinata and Teru's friendship turned out to be the glue that held the entire class together, asking Hinata to choose meant she'd also be responsible for the class group breaking in half, a fact that her fellow classmates picked up on right away (and almost piled on her for). Hikage found herself at risk of not only losing her budding romantic relationship and all her friendships and budding friendships, all because of this stupid love triangle.<br /><br />The love triangle resolved itself less painfully for the characters than I expected, but that was mostly because Toyama allowed the tension between Hinata and Teru to just sort of magically evaporate. Some aspects of the love triangle never quite went away, despite Hikage making her choice, which left me wondering whether the issue had really been resolved. I suppose it could morph into an inside joke shared by all three of the characters...<br /><br />In addition to the love triangle, I also hated that the bullying storyline came back, with the exact same bully. Even though her previous plans resulted in her own public humiliation, Aya decided to jump back into the fray with new plans...that could easily be traced back to her and used to humiliate her a second time. Because this is supposed to be fluffy shojo starring a super-sweet heroine, instead of humiliation Aya got an apology, a smile, and an encouraging speech.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I'm the horrible person who thinks that there was nothing for Hikage to apologize for. Aya was in the wrong for thinking that Hinata was supposed to be some kind of untouchable idol and trying to keep others away from him. She was also in the wrong for bullying Hikage for getting close to him. She made it worse by impersonating several people in the love triangle to further screw up everyone's relationships, all so she could win over a guy who'd already made it clear he wasn't interested in her.<br /><br />On the plus side, I was glad that Hikage's online relationships didn't quite work out the way I originally thought they were going to. It wasn't as neat and tidy as "Black Rabbit is <i>this </i>person from Hikage's offline life and Mega Pig is <i>that </i>person," and I liked the recognition that the way people interact with others online might not always match how they interact with them in person. So there's that. (And yes, characters could use their flip phones to post comments on Hikage's blog. They do it on-page in this volume, answering the question I had back while I was reading the first volume.)<br /><br />I didn't hate this series, but this half of it was definitely weaker than the first half, and the first half was mediocre. Parts of the series were stronger than I expected, but the bullying storyline and the love triangle were both annoying. If ever there was a series that I wish had completely ditched its romance aspect and just focused on friendship, it's this one. I was more than a bit horrified when Hikage examined her feelings for Hinata and Teru and began to lean towards the "romantic relationships are more important than friendships" answer. The series didn't quite work out that way, but I still wasn't a fan of how Toyama handled things.<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><br />The volume includes several author sidebars featuring a not-particularly-interesting comic series starring Mega Pig (the actual cartoon animal) and Mahi (the sunflower character), character profiles for Hikage, Hinata, and Teru, a short comic starring fourth-grade Hinata and Teru, a few pages of humorous short comics, and a few pages of translator's notes. There's also a bonus comic starring Mega Pig (his offline self), which was kind of cute and tied up a few loose ends from the main series.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-54097908876497169452018-03-27T06:54:00.000-05:002018-03-27T07:17:19.693-05:00REVIEW: Yukarism (manga, vol. 3) by Chika Shiomi, translated by John Werry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A2Ejwk6JHqo/WrovHHMzhBI/AAAAAAAAEEo/LkSB-H8Bq68H8SmiqdZSIPGptSHxvIVjQCLcBGAs/s1600/yukarism-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="423" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A2Ejwk6JHqo/WrovHHMzhBI/AAAAAAAAEEo/LkSB-H8Bq68H8SmiqdZSIPGptSHxvIVjQCLcBGAs/s320/yukarism-3.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><i>Yukarism </i>is a short fantasy series with a few historical elements due to the whole reincarnation thing. I got this volume via interlibrary loan.<br /><br />This review contains <b>spoilers</b>. <br />&nbsp; <br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />In this volume we learn that Kazuma is Yumurasaki's brother. Their mother sold Yumurasaki when she was a child, which allowed Kazuma to survive. When he meets Yumurasaki again years later, she doesn't recognize him, but he recognizes her and decides to devote the rest of his life to protecting her.<br /><br />In the present, Yukari has decided to try breaking free of his past life by purposely learning more about those around him and allowing himself to grow attached to people. In particular, he'd like to grow closer to Mahoro. Unfortunately, Yukari, Mahoro, and Satomi have all become so bound up in the patterns of their former lives that breaking free might not be possible. Mahoro and Satomi have a habit of blanking out and attacking each other every time they spend more than a few minutes together, and Yukari can't seem to stop being drawn back to the past.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />My experience with short manga series has been that most of them are unsatisfying on some level, but so far this has been one of the more decent ones. I wish that Mahoro and Satomi's connections to their past lives could have been done a little more subtly, although I suppose the way Shiomi did things wasn't too bad. Their connection started off so suddenly and over-the-top that it was almost comedic at times, but in this volume it morphed into something more serious that could truly get people killed.<br /><br />The section of this volume focused on Kazuma was...disconcerting. When he first met Yumurasaki as an adult, he wasn't 100% sure that she was his sister, and he found himself a little attracted to her. The realization that she was definitely his sister came right after his realization that he was maybe attracted to her, but I somehow doubt he ever examined that horrifying mixture of feelings too closely. Oh man, I hope the last volume doesn't reveal that his protectiveness really does spring from feelings a bit more complicated than survivor guilt and brotherly love, because ewww.<br /><br />Yukari (in Yumurasaki's body) and Takamura had some cute scenes this time around. I'm still not sure I buy that Takamura's scariness in the first volume was really just an act, but Shiomi did a better job of making Yumurasaki and Takamura a believable potential couple than I expected.<br /><br />I'm looking forward to reading the final volume. Here's hoping it at least ends well for Yukari, Mahoro, and Satomi.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-17661066596392073932018-03-18T17:34:00.000-05:002018-03-18T17:34:28.712-05:00REVIEW: Yukarism (manga, vol. 2) by Chika Shiomi, translated by John Werry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vFXFZF0jOyE/Wq7omo5YmxI/AAAAAAAAEDs/qCRmZDDqg18YfTUWymDHEFceRBluCU3vgCLcBGAs/s1600/yukarism-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vFXFZF0jOyE/Wq7omo5YmxI/AAAAAAAAEDs/qCRmZDDqg18YfTUWymDHEFceRBluCU3vgCLcBGAs/s320/yukarism-2.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><i>Yukarism </i>is a short fantasy series with a few historical elements due to the whole reincarnation thing. I got this volume via interlibrary loan.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />Katsuhiko Satomi has arrived at Yukari's house in order to take over the housekeeping duties while his aunt is waiting for her back to heal. Yukari immediately notices that he seems familiar and figures that he knew him in his past life. But who was he? Takamura, the man who may have killed Yumurasaki? Or perhaps someone else?<br /><br />The question continues to plague Yukari as he is once again transported into the past. This time around, he witnesses new sides to Takamura and Kazuma that make him wonder about everything he's assumed so far. Meanwhile, Satomi and Mahoro struggle against their past selves, who hate each other intensely.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />This volume was definitely better than the first. The way Mahoro and Satomi kept being taken over by their past selves was a bit odd and over-the-top, but I loved the various revelations about their identities.<br /><br />Yukari continued to be somewhat bland, but it was revealed that this blandness was connected to the way his past life had mixed with his current one. He held himself aloof from everyone because a part of him still approached life the way Yumurasaki had. I thought that aspect was interesting.<br /><br />Considering how menacing Takamura was in the first volume, I was more than a little surprised by the way he was suddenly presented, in this volume, as more of a romantic figure, amusingly lovesick over Yumurasaki. He still had that edge of menace from time to time, but this time around it was never directed towards Yumurasaki, but rather always towards those who might hurt her. While I enjoyed the scene where Yumurasaki turned down his offer to buy her freedom, it was a reminder that, if he'd really wanted to push things, she probably wouldn't have had much of a choice.<br /><br />Two more volumes to go before the end of the series. The past has already happened and presumably can't be changed - Yumurasaki is going to die in a fire, potentially after some kind of battle. The question, now, is who was responsible for her death, and will the events of the past lead to people in the present killing each other?<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><br />Several author sidebars about the time Shiomi hurt her back, and two pages of translator's notes.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-44046356338209824442018-03-15T12:14:00.002-05:002018-03-15T18:50:54.934-05:00REVIEW: Land of the Lustrous (manga, vol. 3) by Haruko Ichikawa, translation by Alethea Nibley and Athena Nibley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VJeTeyW5tPY/WqqnaTQ2B7I/AAAAAAAAEBU/vq1XFxwJ0qUM05kDltAu_D3Uyp1Hgtj8gCLcBGAs/s1600/land_of_the_lustrous-3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VJeTeyW5tPY/WqqnaTQ2B7I/AAAAAAAAEBU/vq1XFxwJ0qUM05kDltAu_D3Uyp1Hgtj8gCLcBGAs/s320/land_of_the_lustrous-3.jpeg" width="213" /></a></div><i>Land of the Lustrous</i> is SFF manga. I got this volume via interlibrary loan.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />In this volume we get a bit more world-building and a new character. Winter is starting, which means less sunlight and therefore less energy for most of the Lustrous. While almost all of them go into hibernation, Kongo-sensei and Antarcticite become everyone's guardians. Antarcticite spends most of the year in a liquid form, but every winter they solidify and gradually grow stronger as temperatures get colder.<br /><br />Phos is usually the first of the Lustrous to begin hibernation and the last to wake up, but this time around they can't seem to stay asleep, a possible side effect of their new legs. Kongo-sensei assigns Phos to Antarcticite as their new partner. Phos isn't sure they're up to the task, especially after the disastrous incident with the Amethyst twins, and then there's the issue of the talking ice floes that prey on Phos's anxieties.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Although the first volume made this series look like it was going to be a "natural discovery or Lunarian attack of the week" kind of thing, in the last couple volumes it's become more focused on Phos's desire to become stronger and more useful and eventually able to help Cinnabar. There are also hints that Kongo-sensei knows more about the Lunarians than he's told the younger Lustrous.<br /><br />I wasn't expecting this volume to be as tragic as it was. The panels in which Lustrous (I won't say which ones) were broken into pieces were brutal, and this time around there was more explicit recognition of the horror inherent in the Lustrous's tendency to lose memories whenever they permanently lost a body part.<br /><br />It'll be interesting to see where Ichikawa goes after this. Will Phos be able to get their memories back, or will they just make new ones? Are they going to lose more? And I wonder, has anyone ever retrieved kidnapped Lustrous from the Lunarians before?<br /><br />Although I'm very much enjoying the story and world-building details, I do still have some issues with this series. First, I'm just going to say it: the action scenes in this series aren't always very good. They're pretty, and the composition of individual panels and pages is great, but the action often requires a lot of effort to follow and doesn't always make sense. For example, at the beginning of the volume the Amethyst twins cut open another weird pod-like Lunarian. In the first volume, when a similar Lunarian was cut open there was a sequence of panels that showed arrows made out of Lustrous pieces emerging from the Lunarian's...pore things.<br /><br />In this volume, it wasn't nearly as easy to tell what had happened and how. In one panel, the Lunarian's pore things were just empty holes. In the next panel, giant spiky blade-things has already fully emerged, which no obvious indication of how something so big could have fit inside the Lunarian and emerged from those holes. After staring at the image for a while, I eventually figured out what might have happened, but those pages were really jarring and confusing the first time I saw them.<br /><br />After the fun I had looking up the properties of real-life cinnabar after reading volume 1, I decided to see if Ichikawa had based Antarcticite off of the properties of real antarcticite. From what I can tell, although antarcticite is just as brittle as the manga said it was, Ichikawa made up most of the character's abilities. A bit disappointing.<br /><br />All in all, this volume contributed a few more interesting world-building details and continued Phos's transformation into...something. It's definitely looking like this series is going to end in tragedy, at least where Phos is concerned. I plan to continue on with <i>Land of the Lustrous</i>, although limited library availability may mean that I'll have to switch to buying it.<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><br />Two pages of 4-panel comics - the humor felt a little weird and out-of-place after the events of this volume. Also, a page with two translator's notes. A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-50089044417603768832018-02-25T13:07:00.000-06:002018-02-25T13:07:40.640-06:00REVIEW: I Am Here! (manga, vol. 1) by Ema Toyama, translated by Joshua Weeks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RyNfc0hAFk4/WpME5hggKHI/AAAAAAAAD8M/yFqckuWnQ4w1a_afc-pCjuRpQkxsXN0-gCLcBGAs/s1600/i_am_here-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RyNfc0hAFk4/WpME5hggKHI/AAAAAAAAD8M/yFqckuWnQ4w1a_afc-pCjuRpQkxsXN0-gCLcBGAs/s320/i_am_here-1.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><i>I Am Here!</i> is a romance series. I got this volume via interlibrary loan.<br /><br />This review includes a reference to a revelation that I feel is probably too obvious to count as a spoiler, but, just in case, here's your spoiler warning. <br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />This is actually an omnibus collection of the first three volumes of the series. Hikage Sumino is an eighth grader who'd like nothing more than to have friends like other people do. Unfortunately for her, she's practically invisible. Even when people notice that she's in the room, they soon forget she's there. It isn't just people her own age who don't see her - adults constantly forget she exists too. She's been left behind on field trip days, ignored in restaurants, and even hit by someone on a moped when she tried to help a cat. The only times she seems to truly exist are when she's taking care of the sunflower she's been growing and when she's blogging. She has two regular commenters who encourage her: Black Rabbit and Mega Pig.<br /><br />When two of the school's most popular boys, Hinata and Teru, talk to her, it starts to look like maybe Hikage can finally have her time in the sun. First, however, she must struggle against her own introversion and low self-esteem, as well as jealous classmates.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />I might have liked this a lot more if I weren't a longtime manga reader. As it was, I could think of several series this reminded me of, and most of those were better. The one that came foremost to my mind, for example, was <i>Kimi ni Todoke</i>, which had a more believable setup and more enjoyable heroine. Toyama pushed Hikage's invisibility a bit too hard and ended up making it seem almost like some kind of unfortunate superpower. People literally didn't see her, or forgot she was there even if she was within view. Only Hinata and Teru were exempt from her powers, at least until Toyama decided that it was necessary for some of Hikage's female classmates to hate her.<br /><br />The bit with the jealous girl was cliched but not necessarily bad, although, again, I preferred the similar storyline in <i>Kimi ni Todoke</i> because of the way it tied in with the main character's first female friendships. In this series, Hikage just went from no real-life friends to actually talking to someone for the first time and almost immediately getting dumped on by jealous girls. The scene where everyone suddenly stood by her when she finally defended herself was nice, but felt a bit forced.<br /><br />The way the volume ended indicated that the second and final omnibus will deal with the identity of Hikage's "anonymous" online friends. Since they're almost certainly Hinata and Teru, I'm more interested in finding out how Hikage reacts and how they learned that "Sunflower" was Hikage. I somehow doubt that Toyama will ever explain how, out of all the blogs in existence, they became commenters on a supposedly anonymous blog written by one of their classmates.<br /><br />I got the feeling that Toyama didn't have much of a concept of just how big the Internet is. The first volume of the series was originally published in 2007, so it isn't like this was written in the early days of blogging and the Internet. Toyama also didn't always think through how certain scenes were supposed to work. For example, if Hinata was Black Rabbit, how did he comment on Hikage's blog minutes/seconds before knocking on her door? The characters in this series only had flip phones. Was it possible to use flip phones to comment on blogs? (I only ever used mine as a phone and an alarm clock, so maybe that was a function I didn't know about.)<br /><br />Although this was pretty mediocre, it did remind me of my first blog, which I started back when I was in the midst of my post-grad school job hunt. It wasn't a good time in my life, and my blog was meant to serve as both a way to keep track of what I was doing to make myself a better job candidate and as an emotional outlet. In real life, I talked to maybe a handful of people a week, my parents and my supervisor and coworkers at my part-time job, and the longer I went without being able to give them good news about my job hunt the worse I felt. Unfortunately, I also felt like I couldn't talk about most of what I was feeling. My blog gave me a place where I could vent a little without worrying that I was upsetting anyone around me.<br /><br />Amazingly, I got several frequent commenters and, as far as I can remember, every single one of them was kind and supportive. If you were one of the commenters on my first blog, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you. You all helped me so much.<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><br />There are various author sidebars, plus two pages of extra comics that take a humorous look at Hikage's invisibility. The sidebars reveal that Toyama had similar issues with going so unnoticed at her school that her own classmates didn't know who she was, although she admits that it wasn't on the same level as Hikage's invisibility.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-63604244757092480022018-02-11T16:27:00.001-06:002018-02-11T16:27:20.247-06:00REVIEW: A Love Song for the Miserable (manga) by Yukimura, translated by Sachiko Sato<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9LC6HXGRPQY/WoDAYsxMxZI/AAAAAAAAD4w/sTz1wEVNu3co8fbZR5vNd1IkTfDfzcE-QCLcBGAs/s1600/love_song_for_the_miserable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9LC6HXGRPQY/WoDAYsxMxZI/AAAAAAAAD4w/sTz1wEVNu3co8fbZR5vNd1IkTfDfzcE-QCLcBGAs/s320/love_song_for_the_miserable.jpg" width="227" /></a></div><i>A Love Song for the Miserable </i>is yaoi manga published by Digital Manga Publishing.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />All Asada wants is to transfer to his company's Events Planning Division and hopefully start implementing some of his ideas to make their events better and more exciting. However, his request for a transfer is turned down. On the plus side, his horrible day at work leads to him meeting Nao, the son of the owner of a cake shop. Nao convinces Asada to be his taste tester, and the two men become friends.<br /><br />Unfortunately, their relationship sours when Nao tells Asada that he plans to go to France to study to be a patissier. Asada reacts badly, and he and Nao don't meet or even speak to each other again until three years later, when Asada finally achieves his goal of joining the Events Planning Division and must get a new patissier to participate in the division's upcoming sweets fair. The patissier he's been assigned to negotiate with is Nao.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />This was an impulse buy. It was on sale and at least one review of it stated that it was sweet and didn't have much in the way of sex scenes. I crossed my fingers and hoped that meant it was genuinely sweet and didn't include rape-y moments. The last time I took a similar chance I ended up with Tatsumi Kaiya's <i>Hot Steamy Glasses</i>, which didn't fit my definition of "sweet" and included a main character who considered resorting to rape because he was feeling sexually frustrated.<br /><br />Thankfully, <i>A Love Song for the Miserable</i> was genuinely good. Yukimura paid a fair amount of attention to the nonsexual aspects of Nao and Asada's relationship. As far as rape-y aspects went, there was one instance when it looked like things were going faster than Asada could handle, but then Nao backed off.<br /><br />The volume was primarily devoted to Asada gradually realizing the true nature of his feelings for Nao (for most of those three years he told himself he loved Nao like a brother) and then worrying that someone would notice how he felt. He was afraid that Nao would either react negatively if he knew or at the very least unambiguously reject him.<br /><br />It wasn't until fairly late in the volume that Asada realized there was another element in play in his feelings for Nao: envy. From Asada's perspective, Nao had found his path in life and had then managed to move forward, whereas very little had changed in Asada's own life.<br /><br />I really liked watching how things worked out between Asada and Nao. It's too bad the volume wasn't a bit longer - it would have been nice to see a little more of Asada and Nao after they became an official couple, and the whole issue of Asada's career concerns didn't seem to truly be resolved (okay, so he's happy with his job now, but why?). A couple shorts, one showing Asada and Nao a few years down the line and one with Nao's boss and her husband, would have also been lovely. That said, I really enjoyed this and could see myself rereading it in the future. Sadly, I don't think any of Yukimura's other works have officially been translated into English. I'd love to read more.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-38351508518726676872018-02-06T00:47:00.000-06:002018-02-06T00:47:06.440-06:00REVIEW: Yukarism (manga, vol. 1) by Chika Shiomi, translated by John Werry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gbKkRdF6IKc/WnlNXbhGRTI/AAAAAAAAD3s/vxix7N9K9qgvrrKphIWnqO0oTPyJvOkPQCLcBGAs/s1600/yukarism-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gbKkRdF6IKc/WnlNXbhGRTI/AAAAAAAAD3s/vxix7N9K9qgvrrKphIWnqO0oTPyJvOkPQCLcBGAs/s320/yukarism-1.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><i>Yukarism </i>is sort of a time travel manga. It's licensed by Viz. I got it via interlibrary loan.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />At his birth, Yukari was declared to have retained memories of his past life. In the series' present, seventeen-year-old Yukari is a prolific author of books set in the Edo period. He doesn't particularly like writing and he never does any research, but his memories of his past life compel him to write.<br /><br />His lackluster attitude towards writing dismays Mahoro, a student at Yukari's school who happens to be a huge fan of his work. Yukari feels a connection to Mahoro, which he immediately realizes is due to the fact that they knew each other in the past - Yukari's past self was cut down by a sword and died in a fire, and it seems that Mahoro's past self died right beside him.<br /><br />It'd merely be an interesting discovery, except that Yukari suddenly finds himself drawn into the past and deposited into the body of his former self, Yumurasaki, a popular oiran (according to the translator's notes, a class of courtesan). For some unknown reason, Yukari keeps getting pulled backward and forward in time, meeting people in his present who are reincarnations of people he knew when he was Yumurasaki.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />I didn't realize until I started looking up more info about the meaning of "oiran" that I had probably mistaken this series for <i>Sakuran</i>, another series starring an oiran. Whoops. Well, I can try to hunt that series down later.<br /><br /><i>Yukarism </i>wasn't exactly bad, but it left me feeling very underwhelmed. Yukari's reaction to being transported into the body of his past self seemed extremely muted considering that 1) his past self was female, 2) sex was very likely to come up at some point, and 3) it was possible he could end up experiencing his past self's death. Oh, and he had no idea whether his actions in the past might have some effect on the future - although he inhabited the body of his past self, his mind was very much that of his current self.<br /><br />In this first volume, Yukari met three people he knew in his past life: Mahoro, who was once Kazuma, Yumurasaki's (male) bodyguard; Emi, who was once Hitoha, Yumurasaki's apprentice; and a young man who once Takamura, a good-looking but menacing client of Yumurasaki's. Everyone seems to be at least a little affected by their past lives, even though most of them have no memories of their past selves. From the look of things, the series is going to be focused on the mystery of how Yumurasaki died, and whether history will end up repeating itself.<br /><br />Since the series is only four volumes long, I plan on continuing on. I hope it improves, though. The premise is interesting enough, but the execution is a little weak. At least the artwork is decent.<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><ul><li>A couple pages of translator's notes.</li><li>Author sidebars. Writing/illustrating a historical manga was very much outside the author's comfort zone. </li></ul>A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-1122118988590890012018-01-25T23:55:00.002-06:002018-01-25T23:55:34.006-06:00REVIEW: Land of the Lustrous (manga, vol. 2) by Haruko Ichikawa, translated by Alethea Nibley & Athena Nibley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-URhGObSy2f8/Wmq-nLbuCaI/AAAAAAAAD1o/zJ1MoXUS4Ssn7lFa715Y5U2yi44KXETgwCLcBGAs/s1600/land_of_the_lustrous-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="251" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-URhGObSy2f8/Wmq-nLbuCaI/AAAAAAAAD1o/zJ1MoXUS4Ssn7lFa715Y5U2yi44KXETgwCLcBGAs/s320/land_of_the_lustrous-2.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><i>Land of the Lustrous</i> is SFF manga. I got this volume via interlibrary loan.<br /><br />I somehow managed to avoid including spoilers in this review. It was very hard - I wanted to write about this volume's revelations <i>so</i> badly.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />Phos talks to Kongo-sensei about Cinnabar and ends up feeling useless. No one can figure out how to help Cinnabar, not even Kongo-sensei. That's when Ventricosus, the little snail creature that no one but Phos seems to be able to hear, makes a suggestion: if there's no help for Cinnabar to be found on land, then why not go into the ocean? Phos is hesitant at first, because going into the ocean generally isn't allowed, but changes their mind as Ventricosus begins to die of starvation.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />The first volume didn't completely sell me on this series. It was beautiful, but also occasionally confusing, and I wasn't sure where Ichikawa was planning to go with any of it. I expected volume 2 to feature a few more relatively self-contained efforts on Phos's part to work on Kongo's natural history project and find something to free Cinnabar from their self-imposed isolation. Which I suppose is partly what I got, but volume 2 also included some really unexpected and interesting information about the planet on which the gem beings live, the Lunarians, and the Lunarians' attacks.<br /><br />I'm really glad I continued on with this series. The artwork was still gorgeous. The second half of the volume was excellent, and there were a couple somewhat horrifying revelations that I can't wait for Ichikawa to explore some more, although I'm a little worried that one of them might lead to large amounts of tragedy. The gem beings are technically immortal but not, as it turns out, eternal. I found it a little strange that this didn't seem to freak them out more. Maybe they just hadn't had much experience with it?<br /><br />Come to think of it, the thing with Phos in this volume may open up a bit of plot hole concerning the incident with Dia's arm in the previous volume. I wonder if Ichikawa is going to go back to that at all? <br /><br />At any rate, I'm really looking forward to seeing what Ichikawa does with this series, and I'm happy I already have a copy of volume 3 in via interlibrary loan. I enjoyed volume 2 enough that I'm considering adding this series to my "to buy" list. The biggest complaint I had about it, aside from a few possible inconsistencies it introduced, was that the action scenes were incredibly confusing. Even after rereading them I still wasn't 100% sure what happened.<br /><br /><b>Extras:</b><br /><ul><li>A couple full-color pages of character introductions for all the gem beings, or at least the ones that are still free: their names, hardness, and a small amount of information about them.</li><li>A couple pages of 4-koma comics in which several of the gem beings act as fashion models.</li><li>A page of translation notes. </li></ul>A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-46496449485203795252018-01-20T19:32:00.001-06:002018-01-20T19:32:18.008-06:00REVIEW: Skip Beat! (manga, vols. 37-39) by Yoshiki Nakamura, translated by Tomo KimuraI'm almost done with my vacation reading posts - only one more to go after this. Then I'd like to publish a "best" and "worst" of 2017 post.<br /><br />If I had the shelf space, I'd start working on buying the entire <i>Skip Beat!</i> series so that I could periodically reread it. It's so good. Whereas other long-running series leave my feeling impatient, <i>Skip Beat!</i> just keeps working for me. I'd be perfectly fine with it not ending any time soon, which I suppose is a good thing, since it doesn't seem like it's going to. Here's hoping that it continues to be translated into English until the very end.<br /><br />The three volumes I read during my vacation included the series' first on-page glimpse of Kyoko's relationship with her mother, along with a flashback to Kyoko's mother's past. Great stuff, especially volume 38.<br /><br />As usual, there are <b>major spoilers </b>past this point.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>Skip Beat!</i> (manga, vol. 37) by Yoshiki Nakamura, translated by Tomo Kimura</b> - Kyoko fills in as Chiori Amamiya's manager. She and Chiori share the belief that everything in their lives could potentially be useful to their acting, but it still comes as a shock to Kyoko later on when Moko says Kyoko's Natsu character is very similar to Kyoko's mom, who Moko has just met. Kyoko briefly runs into her mother, who ignores her. She manages to keep it together, until she sees a TV broadcast in which her mother says she has no children. Sho tries to comfort her, but Kyoko pushes him away. The one she runs to in the end is Corn...or rather Ren, who she mistakes for Corn.<br /><br />Poor Kyoko. She could tolerate being hated by her mother, but not being erased by her. Did Kyoko's mom (Saena) really not want her? And why isn't her dad in the picture? Did Saena prefer her career over having kids, or was this all due to something else?<br /><br />Watching Ren fret over Kyoko was nice. A perfect opportunity for him to have kept his natural hair color, but oops, he got it dyed because he had no idea what was going to happen.<br /><br /><b><i>Skip Beat!</i> (manga, vol. 38) by Yoshiki Nakamura, translated by Tomo Kimura</b> - Kyoko's talk with Ren gives her the level of positive energy she needs to decide to approach her mother - because approaching her without warning is likely the only thing that'll work. Kyoko almost chickens out but is forced to go through with it by Mr. Todoh, Saena's colleague. It's then that we get glimpses of Saena's past through her eyes. She fell in love with Mr. Misonoi, who seemed to understand her when no one else did (such as her habit of frowning, which didn't mean that she was mad but rather that she was just concentrating on a trivial decision). Unfortunately, little things here and there have her wondering if he's really a corporate spy, using her to win against her in a big court case.<br /><br />Ohh, this volume was good. After an entire series of only catching glimpses of Kyoko's relationship with her mother, and only from Kyoko's perspective, we finally get to see things from her mother's perspective. I still think she was overly cruel when she said that she didn't have a daughter, but here we at least got some kind of explanation: she thought that Kyoko had quit school and run off to elope with Sho (which she kind of did, only Sho ended up just using her instead). Saena's decision to completely cut Kyoko off was due to her own guilt and inner turmoil about having made a similar bad decision herself when she was younger.<br /><br />It was nice to learn a little about Saena's past. I'm looking forward to seeing more about how things worked out with Mr. Misonoi. Was he really a corporate spy, or did Saena's suspicions turn out to be false and destroy their budding relationship? It sure did seem like he'd drugged her to get at the disks.<br /><br />And, oh man, it turns out that Saena has resting angry face.<br /><br /><b><i>Skip Beat!</i> (manga, vol. 39) by Yoshiki Nakamura, translated by Tomo Kimura</b> - Kyoko learns the rest of her mother's story. Mr. Misonoi was indeed a corporate spy. He left without a trace and Saena has lived with the guilt of her actions ever since. She'd even have gotten an abortion if she could have. Despite this revelation, Kyoko leaves with a lighter heart and a desire to do her mom proud. Meanwhile, everyone else is still worried about her. Kyoko checks in with Moko, Ren checks up on Kyoko, and Kyoko even stops by to see Sho. Kyoko decides to audition for a role in a drama called <i>Lotus in the Mud</i>. (A funny moment: Ren could have gotten the role of the ronin that Kyoko's character falls for, but Yashiro didn't think it'd fit into his schedule. Poor Ren!)<br /><br />I was hoping for a larger chunk of this volume to be devoted to the rest of Saena's story, but it's nice to know that Kyoko could potentially run into her dad in a future volume (even if she never realizes it!). The last part of Saena's story was a bit frustrating. If she had truly suspected Mr. Misonoi, she should have brought home fake disks that last time. Why bring home the real ones?<br /><br />I was a little surprised at how positively Nakamura wrote Saena's revelation that she'd have aborted Kyoko if she could. Kyoko was very understanding and took it all very well.<br /><br />Some visual problems I ran into while reading this volume: Moko looks an awful lot like Saena. Also, I was a bit taken aback by Sho's new haircut. He looks younger and more vulnerable. Weird.<br /><br />This volume felt a bit scattered and anticlimactic after the awesomeness of the previous volume, but not bad. I'm looking forward to seeing how the <i>Lotus in the Mud</i> stuff goes. But doesn't Kyoko still have her school bully drama to do? I suppose it could be that there's room in her schedule for more.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-57543624831062580102018-01-10T22:56:00.000-06:002018-01-10T22:56:01.098-06:00REVIEW: Natsume's Book of Friends (manga, vols. 11-13) by Yuki Midorikawa, translated by Lillian OlsenAnother vacation reading post. I had a huge stack of these available during my vacation. I somehow forgot how good this series was and put off starting them until just a few days before I had to go back home, so I only managed to get through three of them. I'm definitely going to be continuing this series during my next vacation. I'm pretty sure I still haven't made it past the point where the anime stopped (or at least what I've seen of the anime, since apparently there's now more).<br /><br />As usual with these vacation reading posts, there are <b>spoilers </b>beyond this point. <br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>Natsume's Book of Friends</i> (manga, vol. 11) by Yuki Midorikawa, translated by Lillian Olsen</b> - In the first part of the volume, Natsume and Tanuma help Taki clean up the creepy storage places at her home (her grandpa's old home? my notes are unclear). In the process, they awaken a dangerous doll yokai that Taki's grandfather accidentally sealed. In the next part of the volume, Natsume realizes that he's finally emotionally capable of looking at his parents' photo again. He also decides that he wants to visit his parents' old home one last time before it's sold. In order to visit the house, though, he first has to go to the family he used to live with to get the key. This requires dealing with an increasingly dangerous insect-eating yokai and the family's daughter, who was always jealous of the attention Natsume was given when he lived with them.<br /><br />I always forget how warm and gentle this series is. Even when it breaks my heart, it does so softly. The art style doesn't really appeal to me - too light and scratchy (or wispy?) - but it works fine for this series and I love the characters and stories enough that it doesn't matter.<br /><br />I absolutely <i>love </i>volumes like this one, that deal with Natsume's friendships. He's gradually learning to trust his human friends and ask them for help, and to accept help when it's offered. The bit where Tanuma had all his and Natsume's friends stop what they were doing and look for Natsume's missing photo was wonderful.<br /><br />I also enjoyed the flashbacks to Natsume's past, and the brief glimpses of the Fujiwaras just being all domestic and kind. This is a "fuzzy blanket" sort of series, the kind of thing I want to wrap myself up in.<br /><br /><b><i>Natsume's Book of Friends</i> (manga, vol. 12) by Yuki Midorikawa, translated by Lillian Olsen</b> - In the first part of the volume, a yokai tricks Natsume into letting him in - he wants Natsume to use the Book of Friends to summon a yokai named Karikami in order to restore a fragile old note. Natsume gradually learns that the yokai had once loved a human woman. The man she loved left without telling her and married someone else. To keep her from being hurt, the yokai pretended to be the man for a while. In the next part of the volume, Natsume meets an elderly former god who wants to return a mirror to a dangerous yokai who, it turns out, was actually Reiko, Natsume's grandmother. The volume ends with a story in which Natsume gets trapped in a jar by a yokai. Tanuma tries to save him and ends up in trouble, at risk of being eaten by yokai. He and Natori finally cross paths.<br /><br />The first story was very bittersweet and part of an established pattern in this series, in which yokai have fond memories of humans they loved who have long since moved elsewhere or died. I couldn't help but wonder about the woman's part in this story, and what she thought about this strange event in her life.<br /><br />The second story felt a little scattered - it was intertwined with a cup yokai and a dangerous yokai that could cause trouble for the Fujiwara household. Still, it was nice to see Reiko again, even though it was yet another bittersweet moment in her life. The poor girl thought she'd finally found a human friend, and it turned out it was yet another yokai. I wonder if the series will ever touch on how she died, and who the father of her child was? I hope he was one of the rare humans she could trust, but I worry that he wasn't.<br /><br />The third story hurt my heart. There was Tanuma, trying to help Natsume but worried that he was just making things worse. And Natsume, worried about Tanuma getting caught up in his messes - he still can't help his knee-jerk desire to keep his supernatural troubles from his friends. Natori is what Natsume might have been, if things had gone a little differently, and he knows it. He's jaded, but hopeful that Natsume can have the kind of life and relationships that he felt he had to cut himself off from.<br /><br />Not as good as the previous volume, but still quite good.<br /><br /><b><i>Natsume's Book of Friends</i> (manga, vol. 13) by Yuki Midorikawa, translated by Lillian Olsen</b> - In the first part of the volume, Matoba offers Natsume a job. Natsume doesn't want to accept, but he does agree to help with Matoba's little problem, a mask yokai hiding somewhere in his gathering of exorcists. Natori helps Natsume out by getting rid of Matoba's letter. The next part of the volume is a bit from Nishimura's POV - how he and Natsume met and became friends. He never realizes it, but Natsume took care of a yokai that had been plaguing his family. The volume ends with a story from Kitamoto's POV - how he met and befriended Natsume, and also Tanuma. He connects with Natsume over their shared anxiety about what to do once high school is over.<br /><br />The stuff with Matoba was interesting and more suspenseful and action-filled than the rest of the volume. Still, I didn't like that part quite as much as the chapters that came after it. The Matoba clan feels so dark and cold compared to most of the people and beings Natsume interacts with. It was nice to see Natori again, though.<br /><br />The two chapters from Kitamoto and Nishimura's POVs were great examples of why I love this series. Nishimura was such a nice guy, trying to befriend awkward Natsume. Tanuma and Taki are great, but it's also good to see people who have absolutely no clue about Natsume's abilities liking him and enjoying being with him, even though he probably comes across as a little strange from time to time. Kitamoto's chapter was nice too. I liked how he and Natsume had the same sort of seriousness and sense of responsibility - they both want to avoid being a burden on their family, although for different reasons.<br /><br />I feel like every time I try to describe how good this series is, I make it sound boring... A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-75415975881738628492018-01-10T21:19:00.000-06:002018-01-10T21:19:32.562-06:00REVIEW: Orange: The Complete Collection (manga, vol. 2) by Ichigo Takano, translated by Amber Tamosaitis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w5gsfQ-xquA/WlbTsWXLN5I/AAAAAAAADqw/1em06kjncooBc7bH6yH8-IZ-X3CFmm_cACLcBGAs/s1600/orange_complete_collection-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="251" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-w5gsfQ-xquA/WlbTsWXLN5I/AAAAAAAADqw/1em06kjncooBc7bH6yH8-IZ-X3CFmm_cACLcBGAs/s320/orange_complete_collection-2.jpg" width="224" /></a></div><i>Orange </i>is a high school drama series. It's licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment and complete in two omnibus volumes.<br /><br />My review includes major <b>spoilers</b>. <br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />Warning: this manga deals with depression and suicide. You've probably already read the first volume and know that, but this volume goes into more detail and includes a lengthy section from the POV of a character up to the moment he makes his decision to commit suicide.<br /><br />I enjoyed this but had some issues with it that I’m not sure I can articulate. Well, I’ll give it a shot.<br /><br /><i>Orange </i>is only the first two thirds of this volume. The last third is an unrelated story with a completely different tone. I’ll discuss them separately in this review.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><u><i>Orange</i>:</u></b><br /><br />This volume picks up right where the first one left off. Naho is still trying to save Kakeru, but now she knows she isn’t alone - literally all of her friends also received letters from their future/parallel universe selves and are also working to save him. Things have changed enough now that the letters don’t always help, although they can still provide a little bit of guidance. But will it be enough? And will Naho and her friends’ efforts really manage to save Kakeru?<br /><br />One of the things that worried me about the previous volume was the possibility that Takano might be taking the story into “high school romance saves Kakeru” territory. That worry never quite went away - although Takako thought that Kakeru would be fine even if his romance with Naho didn’t work out, Suwa was so unconvinced by this that he continued to sabotage the future he knew he could have with Naho. That said, the way the ending was written indicated that it was everyone, not just Naho, who was necessary to save Kakeru. What he needed wasn’t specifically romance, but rather relationships with people who cared about him, worried about him, and thought about him enough to try to stand by him through everything, even when he actively pushed them away.<br /><br />Which brings me to the thing I’ve been avoiding writing directly about: suicide. While I think <i>Orange</i> is very good, it feels like something that was written more for people like Naho, Suwa, Takako, Hagita, and Azu than people like Kakeru and his mother. The section from Kakeru’s POV is part of the reason why.<br /><br />At one point in the volume, Takano includes a flashback to Kakeru’s POV in the original timeline - all the things that happened to him and contributed to his depression, as well as the one horrible thing that pushed him over the edge and made him decide to commit suicide. It was a very effective bit of storytelling, setting up a sort of final countdown and showing readers the things that Naho and the others didn’t know about but would somehow have to overcome in order to save Kakeru. And as someone who grew up with a mother who was depressed and who worried about contributing to that depression, I can say that Kakeru’s POV felt painfully real.<br /><br />I probably wouldn’t recommend this series to someone who was dealing with depression and/or suicidal feelings unless they had someone they could go to that they felt comfortable talking to. The ending was intended to be a happy and hopeful one, with Naho and the others accomplishing what they set out to do and determined to keep helping Kakeru even past the point where their letters could guide them. However, all I could think was that, despite everything they knew and all their daily efforts, they still only barely managed to keep him from killing himself. There was, for me, something deeply horrifying about that. And after all that, Kakeru’s reaction to what Naho and everyone else told him felt kind of...understated?<br /><br />When I first started this series, I said that it could maybe be considered science fiction. After reading this volume, I take that back: it definitely isn’t science fiction, despite its occasional passages about parallel universes. Takano’s explanation for how Naho and her friends managed to send their letters back in time and start a parallel universe where Kakeru doesn’t die was absolutely ridiculous. Rather than coming up with some kind of brilliant plan to save Kakeru, they literally threw their letters into the ocean and those letters somehow made their way into a black hole (or something similar). The letters then somehow all ended up in just the right time and place.<br /><br /><u><b><i>Haruiro Astronaut</i>:</b></u><br /><br />Chiki and Mami are identical twins. Mami’s the cute one that guys are always asking out. Since she can never bring herself to say “no” to any of them, even if she isn’t interested in them, Chiki always ends up being the one to break up with them for Mami. And then they ask <i>her </i>out because they view the twins as interchangeable. Chiki wants to find someone who sees her for who she is, rather than as an acceptable substitute for Mami, and who wants to be with her.<br /><br />Mami introduces Chiki to Yui, a hot new guy in her class, and Chiki falls head over heels in love. Unfortunately for her, he’s interested in Mami. As if the situation weren’t already painful enough, Mami starts to fall for him too. So where does that leave Chiki?<br /><br />This one’s light and fluffy tone was a welcome change after finishing <i>Orange</i>. The worst thing the characters had to worry about was whether the person they liked happened to like someone else.<br /><br />This story had not one, but <i>two </i>love triangles: the one mentioned in my summary, involving Chiki, Mami, and Yui, and one involving Chiki, Yui’s best friend, and a guy who initially says he’s interested in Mami. To my surprise, I actually kind of liked these love triangles. Although they both had aspects that were painful for the characters, neither one got to the point of truly hurting anybody and wrecking friendships. I’m still not sure how I feel about the final pairings, but the fact that everyone could still talk to each other and have fun together after everything was said and done was really refreshing.<br /><br />(And I wonder, am I the only one who looked at that last page and had a sudden vision of Chiki, Tatsuaki, and Natsuki all going on a date together? Natsuki would quietly and happily soak up the atmosphere, Tatsuaki would be overly loud in a failed effort to hide his nervousness, and Chiki would blush and laugh.)A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-80169943687158882832018-01-01T16:56:00.000-06:002018-01-01T16:56:01.032-06:00REVIEW: Orange: The Complete Collection (manga, vol. 1) by Ichigo Takano, translated by Amber Tamosaitis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yd3Rb9npB5k/Wkq7VNvXObI/AAAAAAAADno/LeC98G2EizADfZZIl1axBpz-3L4YbNJ_QCLcBGAs/s1600/orange_complete_collection-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="251" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yd3Rb9npB5k/Wkq7VNvXObI/AAAAAAAADno/LeC98G2EizADfZZIl1axBpz-3L4YbNJ_QCLcBGAs/s320/orange_complete_collection-1.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>Another vacation read review, so expect <b>major spoilers</b> after the break.<br /><br />This is another manga that made it onto my TBR list because of some review I came across a while back. I can't remember which one or who wrote it.<br /><br />Unfortunately, I saw the "complete collection" part and didn't look closely enough before requesting the volume. If I had paid better attention, I'd have realized that "complete collection" didn't mean that the series was complete in this one volume - instead, it's an omnibus edition with one more volume after it. I'd have requested both if I had known.<br /><br />I went into this with vague memories that the reviewer had loved it, and also that it was maybe science fiction. I suppose it could be considered science fiction due to its thread about parallel universes, but it read more like drama that had the potential to be a tear-jerker.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />The story: Sixteen-year-old Naho receives a letter from herself 10 years into the future. She thinks it's weird and some kind of prank, at first, except that everything it says keeps coming true. It tells her what's going to happen each day, her future self's regrets, and what she needs to do to make things better. Above all, she's supposed to look out for a new classmate of hers, Kakeru, who will commit suicide by riding his bike in front of a car in the winter of his 17th year.<br /><br />I really enjoyed this, although parts of it gave me very mixed emotions. For example, in the original future, one of Naho's male friends, Suwa, will eventually become her husband. After Kakeru died, Naho, who had secretly had a crush on him, cried for days. Suwa eventually helped her pick up the pieces, they got married, and they now have a child together. A bit later in the volume it's revealed that Suwa, too, was told to do everything in his power to save Kakeru, which for him involved giving up on his secret feelings for Naho and instead trying to encourage a relationship between her and Kakeru. 1) This made me very sad for Suwa, even knowing that none of this would invalidate the parallel universe where he and Naho became a family. 2) I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea that romance with Naho could play a significant part in saving Kakeru. I don't want Kakeru's decision to commit suicide to be dependent on Naho. That doesn't seem healthy for either of them.<br /><br />That said, I could understand what they were trying to do. I definitely plan on reading the next volume (in fact, I have an interlibrary loan copy waiting for me to read it right now). However, I'm worried that this series is going to rip my heart out and stomp on it. Every step the characters take makes it harder for them to figure out what to do next, and several important steps are hard for Naho, who's naturally pretty shy, to take.<br /><br />Crossing my fingers that volume 2 puts everyone on a good path and doesn't make a high school romance the primary thing that saves Kakeru. I also hope there's some kind of explanation for how those letters got sent into a parallel universe's past.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-25857438690453603012018-01-01T01:30:00.001-06:002018-01-01T01:30:27.232-06:00REVIEW: Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun (manga, vols. 4-5) by Izumi Tsubaki, translated by Leighann Harvey<i>Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun</i> is a 4-koma comedy series. I had a large stack of it available during my vacation, but after I burned out so badly on <i>My Neighbor Seki</i>, a comedy series that feels like it could be 4-koma even though it isn't, I was reluctant to plow through them. What if I burned out on this series too?<br /><br />I wasn't quite as into this series this time around as I was during my last vacation. Maybe I was just burned out on comedy in general. At any rate, I still enjoyed it and plan on reading more during my next vacation.<br /><br />As usual for these vacation reading posts, there are spoilers from here on out.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun</i> (manga, vol. 4) by Izumi Tsubaki, translated by Leighann Harvey</b> - Nozaki and his male friends play an otome game (and get pretty into it) because Ken, Nozaki's favorite editor, offers it to him and Nozaki desperately wants to be friends with him. Readers get to meet Nozaki's good-looking but lazy younger brother, see how his parents reacted when he decided to move out for his own convenience, etc. The joke about Wakamatsu loving Lorelei (who he's never met) and being aggravated by Seo (who he doesn't realize is Lorelei) continues. Nozaki uses Mikoshiba and Sakura to test out a manga idea about meeting up and using cellphones as little as possible, and there's a joke about Nozaki trying to learn to do backgrounds. He can't seem to get characters' heights right, so he keeps having to put them on boxes.<br /><br />I recalled previous volumes being better, but that might just have been comedy burnout. Still, there were good bits. I laughed at the parts with Nozaki's brother, who Miyako liked to draw without his shirt on. I also enjoyed the bit about Ken trying to win Nozaki over when he first became Nozaki's editor (Nozaki expected Ken to be like his previous editor, the one who now forces Miyako to put tanuki in all her manga). The only thing Ken had to do was know the names of five characters in Nozaki's manga, which underscores just how bad his previous editor was.<br /><br />As far as manga creation goes, Hori really comes across as a more serious manga creator than Nozaki. In his volume he kept stopping to take reference photos for his background work, whereas Nozaki couldn't seem to get the hang of doing his own backgrounds.<br /><br />Oh, and I enjoyed the otome game bit, especially since I've played so many visual novels in the past year. This particular otome game was bizarre. The most normal seeming guy in the game turned out to secretly be Satan.<br /><br /><b><i>Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun</i> (manga, vol. 5) by Izumi Tsubaki, translated by Leighann Harvey</b> - Sakura tries to be more appealing to Nozaki but just ends up behaving worrisomely. Kashima loses her voice and has others read her words for her, Mayu (Nozaki's little brother, who, judging by a quick image search, everyone ships with Mikoshiba) tries to depict judo moves using cute/hot girls from Mikoshiba's manga collection, Nozaki has to try to come up with something cute to put on merchandise for his series, Wakamatsu thinks Kashima is Seo's hot boyfriend (and maybe two-timing Sakura), everybody goes to the beach and all the guys lose their swim trunks because of Seo, and then there's a bit about manga cover illustration. Oh, and we get a flashback to Sakura's love for Nozaki before the start of the manga, plus how they met.<br /><br />Eh, it was okay. The swim trunks bit really made me laugh, though. "I based Mamiko's expressions on Mikoshiba's. It was the perfect mix of despair!" Oh, Nozaki. Anything and everything is fodder for his manga.<br /><br />I also really liked the bit about manga cover illustration. This series is really at its best when the humor is directly related to manga creation. I felt a bit bad for Mamiko, who was stuck putting tanuki on her covers even though Maeno isn't her editor for those, just because people thought <i>she's</i> the one who likes them.<br /><br />The bit about Mayu trying to illustrate judo moves made me wonder if he might get added to Nozaki's roster of assistants. Probably not, since he's so utterly lazy, but he seemed to have enough talent to be useful.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-12067007037201660602017-12-28T13:31:00.002-06:002017-12-28T13:55:28.593-06:00REVIEW: Not Simple (manga) by Natsume Ono, translation by Joe Yamazaki<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FNw6H-DhJlY/WkVEXd4J9II/AAAAAAAADfk/dkYbb_beohQ9CPHSYYaphywbzkpFqfysgCLcBGAs/s1600/not_simple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FNw6H-DhJlY/WkVEXd4J9II/AAAAAAAADfk/dkYbb_beohQ9CPHSYYaphywbzkpFqfysgCLcBGAs/s320/not_simple.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>I'm not sure what genre<i> Not Simple</i> counts as. The best I can come up with is "family drama." It's licensed by VIZ.<br /><br />Warning: this review contains slight <b>spoilers</b>. The manga itself features quite a bit of child abuse, and I mention some of the specifics below.<br /><br /><b>Review:</b><br /><br />I’m not sure how to summarize this story, since so much of it counts as spoilers. I suppose I’ll start at the beginning. A young woman named Irene wants to run away with her boyfriend but is afraid that her dad will find them and literally kill her boyfriend. She then comes up with an idea that immediately qualifies her as a horrible person: pick up a random homeless guy, convince her dad’s goons that he’s her boyfriend, and run off with her boyfriend while the goons beat the homeless guy half to death. It seems like a great (horrible) plan, until she learns that her random homeless guy, Ian, is actually same same guy who convinced a family member of hers not to run off three years ago. <br /><br />Unfortunately, a misunderstanding results in Ian lying on the ground, dying from a gut wound. Ian’s friend, Jim, tells Irene that he plans to turn Ian’s life into a book that will be coming out in about a year. The rest of the manga is Ian’s life up to this point: growing up with an alcoholic mother and cold and dismissive father, trying to keep his promise to his sister so that he can see her again, and then walking across the US searching for his sister after she disappears.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />I read Ono’s <i>Ristorante Paradiso</i> several years ago. I wasn’t a huge fan of it the first time around, but it grew on me after a reread. I’ve always wanted to try another one of her works, and this one-shot seemed like a good place to start. I vaguely remembered it getting some buzz when it first came out.<br /><br />Unfortunately, it turned out to be almost unrelentingly depressing. Ian was written as being very innocent and pure, no matter what sorts of horrible things happened to him. All he wanted was to be with the one person he loved and who loved him back, his sister. When this turned out to be impossible, he sought out other people who’d been good and kind to him...and the universe stomped on him yet again until finally even he couldn’t take it anymore. The horribleness of it all bled into his friend Jim, if the rumors about his fate after the publication of his book were true.<br /><br />There’s a massive amount of child abuse in this story: neglect, emotional abuse, child prostitution, and incest. It sometimes came up in such an offhand manner that I found myself wondering if the things I had thought just happened really had. Ian kept taking absolutely horrific things in stride.<br /><br />I can’t even say this ended on a bittersweet note. Yes, it stopped at a slightly happier time in Ian’s life, but readers had already been told that that was all going to fall apart in the next 3-5 years. I wanted a do-over, with Jim telling Ian “that stuff that happened to you wasn’t okay, and I know it can’t be undone, but we can try to make some good memories from here on out.” Instead, I feel like the mom and her “you should never have been born” speech won out. And wow, her words still make me angry. She spent years heaping punishment on people she should have been trying to help and protect.<br /><br />In the end, this manga just pissed me off and left a bad taste in my mouth. <i>Not Simple</i> bent over backwards to hurt its characters - the bit with Ian's sister's boyfriend was both cruel and difficult to believe. I also wasn't a fan of this on an artistic level. Although I know some people love Ono's unusual style, it doesn't work for me. I’m at least glad that I got this via the library and didn’t pay for it.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-60390054190188769012017-12-17T21:36:00.000-06:002017-12-17T21:36:51.986-06:00REVIEW: Tokyo Ghoul (manga, vols. 1-5) by Sui Ishida, translated by Joe Yamazaki<i>Tokyo Ghoul</i> is a series that I feel torn about. On the one hand, it was an interesting read. On the other hand, it may be a little too dark for my tastes, and even after 5 volumes I'm still not particularly attached to most of the main characters, although I do have a few side characters that intrigue me (Nishiki and Kimi, Uta, Yomo, Yoshimura).<br /><br />I'll probably continue on with this during my next vacation, but after the incident with Suzuya I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to try the anime. It would be nice if both the ghouls and the ghoul investigators came across, morally, as varying shades of grey, but, as of volume 5, it really does feel like the more prominent ghoul investigators are as monstrous, or possibly even more so, than the ghouls they hunt. I can think of only one ghoul investigator I could name, Amon, who might turn out to be a decent human being, and if he keeps turning a blind eye to the way his colleagues behave, I don't know that even he would count.<br /><br />As usual for these posts, there are major <b>spoilers </b>from here on out. I wrote the descriptions with an eye towards allowing me to pick the series back up again a year from now. Oh, and I took terrible notes for this series. For example, I recorded Hinami's name as both Hinami and Hinako, and didn't write down several other characters' names at all. I had to rely on fan-created wikis to straighten things out. <br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>Tokyo Ghoul </i>(manga, vol. 1) by Sui Ishida, translated by Joe Yamazaki</b> - Ken Kaneki, an 18-year-old college student studying Literature, has a huge crush on a woman he saw in Anteiku, a coffee shop. He's thrilled when the two of them arrange a date after she sees that they're reading the same book, but things end <i>very </i>badly: she bites him and he realizes to his horror that she's a ghoul, a being that pretends to be human and hunts humans for food. Fortunately for Kaneki, his would-be murderer is killed by a falling beam. Unfortunately, he receives an organ transplant from her (the doctor who made this decision gets in trouble, since proper consent wasn't given). After that, Kaneki has trouble stomaching human food - it seems that he is now at least partly a ghoul. He tries to avoid eating human flesh but almost ends up eating his best friend. He's saved by two ghouls, Touka and the elderly owner of Anteiku, who are apparently at the head of some kind of ghoul movement to live a quieter life (if only for their own survival). They provide meat to ghouls who, for whatever reason, cannot or do not hunt.<br /><br />The art style took me a bit to get used to. The linework is thick, and hair highlights are scratchy.<br /><br />The action scenes in this series are really hard to follow, and I wouldn't be surprised if the story becomes both more gross and more depressing as it progresses. I've been tempted by the anime boxed sets for this series for some time, but I keep passing it by because I don't know if I can handle how dark I suspect it's going to get. Then again, I love the <i>Attack on Titan</i> anime, so who knows?<br /><br />I'll wait and see how this works for me. Right now it's basically just setup. Readers learn that the ghouls each have territories, and that Rize (Kaneki's date) was a binge eater whose behavior was frowned upon. Kaneki discovers that the only human food/drink he can still enjoy is coffee. Touka loathes him, while Yoshimura, the owner of Anteiku, seems to be pretty nice - although he's still a ghoul, so I'm not entirely sure how far that niceness extends.<br /><br />I'm very iffy about Kaneki so far. Even before he became a ghoul, he seemed to be a bit of an emo loner. He was lucky that Hideyoshi, his best friend, was more outgoing and looked out for him. Crossing my fingers that Hideyoshi doesn't end up dead later on. I would like for this series to not be crushingly depressing, please.<br /><br /><b><i>Tokyo Ghoul </i>(manga, vol. 2) by Sui Ishida, translated by Joe Yamazaki</b> - Kaneki starts working at Anteiku, learning to make coffee and wait tables. He meets Ryoko Fueguchi and her daughter Hinami, two ghouls who don't (can't?) hunt. Kaneki starts practicing eating human food like normal, so that he can more easily blend in and hide his ghoul nature, orders his first mask from Uta, and controls his hunger with brown "sugar" cubes in his coffee. I have a feeling he's going to rely too much on those "sugar" cubes and forget that he actually needs to eat human flesh every once in a while. This quiet period ends when two ghouls investigators track down the Fueguchis and try to exterminate them. Ryoko sacrifices herself so that her daughter can escape, and Kaneki, who witnesses Ryoko's death, decides that he no longer wants to be helpless. He asks Touka to teach him how to use his kagune (ghoul weaponry?). The volume ends with Uta's delivery of Kaneki's first mask, which is way more badass (if impractical) than he, at this point, deserves.<br /><br />I'm intrigued by the world and the story, but many of the characters are just not very likeable. For example, I understand what drives Touka but I can't entirely root for her. Unlike Yoshimura, she seems to have a much more black and white view of the world. Then there's Kaneki, who's still a spineless wimp (granted, I doubt I'd manage much better than him if I were suddenly told that the only thing I could comfortably eat was human flesh). The Fueguchis were nice, but clearly low level ghouls and not the sort of folks that this series is going to focus on. And again, Yoshimura seems nice enough, but readers haven't exactly gotten to know him much yet. Uta intrigues me, at least. I have to wonder how he stays hidden from ghoul inspectors, considering that his appearance screams "ghoul." Is it even possible for his eyes to look normal?<br /><br />This volume's main goal seemed to be to make the ghouls more sympathetic, at least low level ones like the Fueguchis, and it succeeded in that. As far as I could see, they weren't hurting anyone, and even their Anteiku-provided meals were acquired in as harmless a way as possible.<br /><br />The ghoul investigators, on the other hand, were a bit disturbing. At least one of them didn't seem to be quite human himself. I wonder, is he a ghoul hunting other ghouls?<br /><br /><b><i>Tokyo Ghoul </i>(manga, vol. 3) by Sui Ishida, translated by Joe Yamazaki</b> - Touka and Kaneki try to spread a little disinformation about Hinami at the CCG 20th Ward branch. It doesn't work, but they do discover that Kaneki can go through RC scan gates like a normal human being - apparently his body is still human enough for that. At any rate, Hinami leaves Anteiku, and Touka and Kaneki go after her. Touka finds her first, but the two are soon attacked by Investigator Mado. Kaneki, meanwhile, comes across Investigator Amon. Hinami attacks Mado when it looks like he might be about to kill Touka - it turns out that Mado (who is, in fact, human and not a ghoul, no matter how strange he looks) fights with quinques he made from the kagunes of Hinami's parents. It's no wonder the ghouls hate the ghoul investigators so much, when they use pieces of their friends and family members as weapons against them. Mado is killed by Touka. Kaneki defeats but doesn't kill Amon, determined to show Amon that there's more to ghouls than he thinks.<br /><br />Dang but these battles are hard to follow.<br /><br />I rolled my eyes a bit at Kaneki's battle. As cool as it was that he was able to survive and defeat Amon, he really shouldn't have been able to. Amon had at least some experience under his belt, while Kaneki had no clue what he was doing. He was just lucky that Amon was apparently off his game or something.<br /><br />Hinami is the first ghoul we've seen in this series who for sure has ghoul weaponry but who also doesn't seem to be emotionally capable to killing. I wonder if that's what Yoshimura meant by ghouls who are unable to hunt?<br /><br />This volume was pretty decent, and I'm interested to see if Kaneki can bridge the gap between humans and ghouls, but I'm still not in love with this series.<br /><br /><b><i>Tokyo Ghoul </i>(manga, vol. 4) by Sui Ishida, translated by Joe Yamazaki</b> - We get a glimpse of Touka's school life. As anti-human as she has previously seemed, it turns out that she actually really values her best human friend, to the point of regularly choking down the food her friend makes for her. Kaneki visits Hinami at Touka's place, learns more about how to fight, and meets up with Yomo, Uta, and their friend Itori (the owner of a bar called Helter Skelter). Itori wants to know more about a special ghoul restaurant, so she offers to exchange info about the person who killed Rize - it turns out that Rize's death was <i>not </i>an accident like Kaneki had previously thought. In order to learn about the restaurant, Kaneki has to get closer to Shu Tsukiyama, nicknamed the Gourmet. Unfortunately, he is soon betrayed. Instead of taking him to the restaurant as a guest, Tsukiyama brings him there as an exciting new entree.<br /><br />I wish these volumes came with translator's note and/or a bit more information about the world terminology. So far words like "quinque" and "kagune" have been thrown about with little explanation. In the previous volume, Mado's last words were something to the effect that he wanted to bury the "Sekigan" with his own two hands. In this volume, the translator opted to translate "Sekigan" as "one-eyed king." Why not translate it this way in the previous volume as well, or include a brief note?<br /><br />We see more of Nishiki in this volume (who, since I took crappy notes, has not been mentioned in my summaries at all). He hasn't been doing too well since he was injured. Kaneki saves him and learns that he has a human girlfriend who knows he's a ghoul and doesn't seem to mind. I suspect that this will end badly.<br /><br />Kaneki is kind of dumb. He knows that Tsukiyama is a flashy killer, and yet he's still drawn in. I wouldn't be surprised if Tsukiyama manages to trick him again.<br /><br />Again, this series continues to throw characters at me that I don't really like and don't necessarily care to see more of. Part of me is still tempted to get the anime, to see if aspects of the series go over better in that format, and part of me is just not into this series enough for that.<br /><br />One thing that surprised me: apparently this series is digitally illustrated, and Ishida only has one assistant.&nbsp; <br /><br /><b><i>Tokyo Ghoul </i>(manga, vol. 5) by Sui Ishida, translated by Joe Yamazaki</b> -&nbsp; Kimi, Nishiki's human girlfriend, comes to Kaneki for help - Nishiki's wound isn't healing well. Unfortunately, this puts her in the Gourmet's sights. He uses her as a hostage to lure in Kaneki, and ends up getting Nishiki and Touka as well. None of the three are strong enough to battle him, so Kaneki offers himself to Touka as a snack, thinking that his body is probably human enough to help her build her strength up enough to fight the Gourmet. She does manage to beat him and then wants to kill Kimi too, for knowing too much, but ends up sparing her. There's a flashback showing how Kimi and Nishiki met. She learned he was a ghoul shortly after Kaneki fought him - she even offered herself to him as food so that he could heal better. Then there's another flashback, this one to Rize moving from the 11th Ward to the 20th. Then back to the CCG and the present - things are ramping up, and a new ghoul investigator, Juzo Suzuya, is introduced.<br /><br />I enjoyed the flashbacks to Nishiki's past, although the way that Kimi came to accept him isn't something that would work for most humans. I'm not quite sure how I feel about their relationship. On the one hand, they seem to genuinely care for each other. On the other hand, I'm not entirely sure that hanging around ghouls is healthy for Kimi. While her relationship with Nishiki kept her from committing suicide, she's made it clear that, if he needs food, she's willing to be his meal even though she might end up dead.<br /><br />The flashback to Rize's past was a bit worthless, although it did show that there were <i>lots </i>of ghouls with a reason to want her dead. Kaneki is going to have a tough time narrowing down the suspects.<br /><br />The CCG stuff was just...not good. Even if one of them hadn't killed the relatively harmless Ryoko Fueguchi a few volumes ago, every time they appear on page at least one of them strikes me as being at least as scary as the scarier ghouls. The scene with Suzuya and the officer made me decide that I probably <i>don't</i> want to watch the anime, not if that scene is included. I couldn't tell exactly what it was he did (I mean, did he really just blow something through the guy's skull via his ears? did I interpret that right?), but whatever it was, it should have qualified him as just as much of a monster as the ghouls they were trying to defend humanity against. And yet.<br /><br />Amon seems to be the most normal of all the ghoul investigators readers have so far gotten to know, and I'm not particularly impressed with him either if he can witness the behavior of someone like Suzuya and not start to question whether he's on the right side.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-25687570205831565512017-12-10T13:15:00.003-06:002017-12-10T13:15:44.354-06:00REVIEW: Delicious in Dungeon (manga, vols. 1-2) by Ryoko Kui, translated by Taylor EngelI added <i>Delicious in Dungeon</i> to my vacation reading list after reading an interesting review of the first volume (sorry, can't recall which review nor who wrote it).<br /><br />It was...odd. And probably not something I could binge-read too much, although I didn't actually think it was bad. It was basically a foodie manga with fictional food. It probably would have appealed to me a lot more if I were a <i>Dungeons &amp; Dragons</i> person, but as it was it was still a nice read. It bugged me a little that the characters seemed so relaxed about rescuing the main character's sister, but it fit with the way the world was written. Death was pretty common, but also not something to be very concerned about, since it usually wasn't permanent. Very strange.<br /><br />Somehow the covers had led me to believe this would be a more emotionally intense series, I think because the characters' expressions reminded me a little of the haunted survivors of <i>Attack on Titan</i>. This really is a very laid back series, though.<br /><br />Again, this is a post-vacation review post, so there are <b>spoilers </b>from here on out. That said, I don't know that spoilers would really ruin this series much. A large part of its appeal is its delicious-looking fantasy food illustrations.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>Delicious in Dungeon</i> (manga, vol. 1) by Ryoko Kui, translated by Taylor Engel</b> - Laios and his adventuring party are trying to defeat a dragon when his sister is grabbed and eaten. Before the dragon gets her, she uses magic to teleport the whole party to safety. Laios wants to save her before she's digested and unrevivably dead, but he's all out of money for provisions, and selling his weapons in order to buy food wouldn't put him in any better of a situation. Which is why he decides to try something he's been curious about for ages: cooking and eating the dungeon monsters he kills. His companions are horrified, but they go along with it out of necessity. It helps that they gain a new member, an experienced dungeon monster cook/nutritionist named Senshi.<br /><br />This series is bizarro. No one seems to be very worried about dying, or even in that much of a rush to save Laios's sister, in large part because resurrection spells are a thing. So a <i>lot </i>of time is devoted to killing and cooking things. This is basically a foodie manga, just with fantasy food. Each meal even includes a list of ingredients.<br /><br />This particular volume discusses the importance of a balanced diet, the fact that even experienced dungeon cooks can learn new things (for example, Senshi learns that mandrakes taste better if you let them scream first), and the use of dungeon traps as kitchen utensils and appliances (for chopping meat, frying it, etc.). Also, Laios acquires a sword with a living armor creature inside it. Portable food? I worry that this guy's obsession with eating dungeon monsters is going to get him and his party killed. Thank goodness Senshi is there, although that guy has his own issues.<br /><br />Marcille, the elf character, was borderline annoying. She was the character who seemed to have the most difficulty adjusting to eating dungeon monsters and finding her place in this slightly altered adventuring party - the polar opposite of Laios, who'd have happily eaten anything Senshi gave him (and some things even Senshi never considered cooking).<br /><br /><b><i>Delicious in Dungeon</i> (manga, vol. 2) by Ryoko Kui, translated by Taylor Engel</b> - The adventurers continue on their quest to save Falin, Laios's sister, and eat all manner of dungeon monsters. Senshi shows them how he uses golems to grow vegetables, talks about the dungeon ecosystem, and more. He also gets them captured by orcs so that he can bake bread using their stolen starter. Later, the group eats treasure insects and a mimic and learns that the food in living pictures is <i>not </i>a good source of nutrition. The volume ends with Senshi learning that the kelpie he thought was a friend was actually waiting to kill him. He fixes a meal with its meat and lets Marcille wash his beard with kelpie fat soap.<br /><br />Uhh. This is still bizarre. The dungeon ecosystem stuff was kind of nice, and the mimic looked delicious (like crab, maybe?), but the bit with the kelpie just made me sad. It reminded me of the pig the main character in <i>Silver Spoon</i> was raising - after reading spoilers for later episodes, I quit that series and have never been able to bring myself to continue on. (Yes, I eat meat, and yes, I know this is hypocritical of me.)<br /><br />The living painting stuff was strange, and I'm still wondering who that crazy elf was. I doubt the series will ever get back to that, though, since that would interfere with cooking and eating things.<br /><br />I laughed at the revelation that Chilchuck is actually 29, and at the other characters' reactions this.<br /><br />All in all, this is strangely fascinating, and I'll probably continue on, but I think I'm going to avoid trying to plow through too many volumes at once, since I suspect binge-reading would ruin this series for me. This might be a good series to get via interlibrary loan requests, rather than in big chunks during my vacations.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-12687515055795705522017-12-10T11:34:00.000-06:002017-12-10T11:52:54.115-06:00REVIEW: Black Butler (manga, vols. 21-23) by Yana Toboso, translated by Tomo KimuraAfter weeks of not being able to write very much at all, I seem to be on a roll right now, so let's see how many more of these post-vacation posts I can knock out.<br /><br /><i>Black Butler</i> is a series I've been reading chunks of every time I have a vacation. I always forget how enjoyable it is. I started reading the volumes I'd requested after slogging through a few mediocre manga, and it was like a breath of fresh air. Toboso's artwork is such a joy to look at that I'm willing to overlook that the main storyline may never get resolved. Do well all even remember what the main storyline is? Well, the arcs are generally fun, even if they don't necessarily have anything directly to do with Ciel's past and his investigation into his parents' murder.<br /><br />I had thought I had finished the Emerald Witch arc during my last vacation, but apparently I wasn't quite done. I got back into it easily enough (that's what my spoiler-y post-vacation posts are for, after all), and it was lots of fun seeing Ciel's group do what they're best at, kicking butt.<br /><br />There are huge <b>spoilers </b>from here on out. Continue on at your own risk. <br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>Black Butler</i> (manga, vol. 21) by Yana Toboso, translated by Tomo Kimura</b> - Ciel convinces Sullivan to choose to live by telling her she could come up with the antidote to SuLIN. However, first Ciel and his group must successfully get her out. While Sebastian is retrieving the samples and killing everyone in sight, Ciel splits everyone else into two groups and acts as a Sullivan decoy. Sebastian catches up in time to save Ciel from a Panzer, although Ciel's father's old friend, Diedrich, also helps. Everyone makes it out, although Sullivan's beloved bodyguard is tragically killed. (Or so it appears!) Also, two German grim reapers are introduced: Ludger and Sascha. The bonus this time around is, I think, "Black Schoolboy" - the library stickers covered up most of the second word.<br /><br />This volume was loads of fun, even though it didn't technically add much to the story. It was just nice getting to see Sebastian rip loose and Ciel's servants finally get to do the things they're actually good at. It's easy to forget that they aren't all just there for comedic relief.<br /><br />Sebastian got to scare the crap out of everyone by surviving a massive dose of mustard gas, which he then blew in Sullivan's mother's face. Finny played the role of Sullivan's legs, transporting her faster than anyone except Sebastian could have done. Baldo got to play with explosives, Meyrin put her sniper skills to use, Tanaka cutting a bullet in two with a sword, and Snake got to use his snake-y communication skills to lead one of the groups. Oh, and Sebastian took out the Panzer by literally punching a hole in it and putting an explosive food tin inside it. <i>So </i>much carnage in this volume. Oh, and there's a brief flashback with Ciel's dad in it!<br /><br />Toboso's manga looks so freaking <i>good </i>after reading bad or mediocre manga. Crisp lines, nicely done screentone, clear facial expressions, and easy-to-follow action.<br /><br />The ending of this volume was a bit of a gut punch, although it was nice to see that even just one person truly cared about Sullivan.<br /><br /><b><i>Black Butler</i> (manga, vol. 22) by Yana Toboso, translated by Tomo Kimura</b> - This is the end of the Emerald Witch arc. Wolfram (Sullivan's butler and bodyguard), who was raised as a soldier since birth and given a name only after he was assigned to Sullivan, is miraculously saved. Ciel and Sebastian transport Sullivan and Wolfram to England. Ciel gives Sebastian one week to turn Sullivan into a young lady fit to meet the queen. Hilarity ensues. Wolfram is only permitted to complain about Sebastian's treatment of Sullivan if he can do so in English. Lizzie arrives and briefly thinks Ciel is cheating on her with Sullivan, but that gets cleared up pretty quickly. Ciel instructs Sullivan to give the queen the formula for mustard gas but to carry the formula for SuLIN to her grave - it's a way for her to secure funding for future research while limiting the horror she looses upon the world. Sebastian deposits the SuLIN samples deep underwater (that doesn't seem like a very good idea unless they're all sure that it won't affect the water, but whatever). The inside cover bonus this time around is "Black Diver."<br /><br />As usual, Toboso ends the arc with a bit of comedy. I was glad that Wolfram survived, and watching Ciel torture Sebastian by forcing him to do the impossible, turning Sullivan into a lady and teaching Wolfram English in only a week, was fun. And then Lizzie arrived and forced Ciel to undergo some of the training too. Ha!<br /><br />This volume included a wacky multi-page bonus comic based on the Japanese character popularity rankings. A character's ranking affected their page-time in the comic, so higher ranked characters got to appear more often. This led to them scheming to steal each others' rankings, which only ended after Sebastian took multiple character rankings to defeat Snake's ranking-superpowered snakes. Like I said, wacky. It ended on a surprisingly melancholy note, as the Undertaker tried to bring Ciel's father, Vincent, back to life by gifting him with a higher ranking. Which made me wonder about Vincent and the Undertaker's relationship, and whether that would get touched on in the next arc.<br /><br />Another intriguing bit: the end of this volume indicated that Vincent might still be alive. I somehow doubt it - the wording was ambiguous - but I look forward to seeing what Toboso has in store for readers.<br /><br /><b><i>Black Butler</i> (manga, vol. 23) by Yana Toboso, translated by Tomo Kimura</b> - This is the beginning of a new arc. The four disgraced prefects from the Weston College arc invite Lizzie's older brother to a music hall. Lizzie gets her brother to take her, and she has her fortune told, resulting in her being mysteriously ensnared by the music hall - no matter how much Lizzie's brother tries to get her to come home with him and stay, she keeps going back to the music hall. Ciel investigates, on the order of the queen and in an effort to figure out Lizzie's strange behavior. The fortune teller, Blavat, seems to immediately know what Sebastian is and has him escorted out of the music hall. Meanwhile, Ciel has his fortune told and is told he's favored by the divine protection of Sirius. He's told to come back on a special day to take part in secret activities: a pop music concert (starring the prefects, who remind me strongly of the <i>Uta no Prince-sama </i>anime) and drugged sleep, during which the participants maybe have their blood drawn. Sebastian learns that some participants are turning up dead.<br /><br />Meh. This arc isn't starting off on a very interesting note, although I did enjoy seeing the prefects <i>and</i> Sebastian act like chirpy pop stars. Also, it was nice to see Sullivan reappear in order to diagnose Ciel's puncture wound - it looks like she might turn into a series regular, the person Ciel can turn to whenever he needs a little scientific help.<br /><br />Part of the reason why I was disappointed with this volume was that I was hoping this arc would bring the story back to the Undertaker and Ciel's father. It looks like that isn't going to be the case, unless this stuff with Blavat is somehow connected.<br /><br />That said, I'll probably enjoy this more after being given time to get used to it. I'm looking forward to reading more of this series during my next vacation. Seeing the shock on Sebastian's face when Blavat instantly realized he wasn't human was a lot of fun - it'll be nice to see where this arc ends up going.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-83037359278673128502017-12-10T00:30:00.001-06:002017-12-10T00:30:32.542-06:00REVIEW: Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Mad Hatter's Late Night Tea Party (manga, vols. 1-2) story by QuinRose, art by Riko Sakura, translated by Angela LiuI <i>will </i>finish all the manga in this franchise, someday. Maybe.<br /><br />This two-volume series features what I consider to be one of the series' most interesting pairings. Even though I don't think Blood is a particularly good for Alice, this pairing tends to dig the deepest into her past, the memories she most wants to forget, and her private insecurities, since Blood looks so much like the tutor she fell in love with back in her own world, and who married her older sister instead.<br /><br />Not that <i>The Mad Hatter's Late Night Tea Party</i> delves into any of that. For a series pairing up Alice and Blood, it was pretty mediocre and offered nothing new. I would also highly recommend that those new to <i>Alice in the Country of Hearts</i> (or any of the other countries) <i>not </i>start with this. It may be tempting to start with one of the shorter series, but it's a bad idea all around.<br /><br />This is one of my post-vacation posts, so be aware that there are <b>spoilers </b>past this point.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Mad Hatter's Late Night Tea Party</i> (manga, vol. 1) story by QuinRose, art by Riko Sakura, translated by Angela Liu </b>- This speeds through Alice's arrival in Wonderland, leaving the palace, staying at Julius's, and ending up at the Hatter Mansion. Alice has sex with Blood. It's supposed to be a casual relationship, but she feels hurt when she starts to think that Blood only keeps her at the mansion to spite Vivaldi. Blood's feelings turn warmer, but Alice can't bring herself to believe him, especially after seeing him with Vivaldi in his garden. She leaves to go back to Julius's place, but Blood pursues her there.<br /><br />This is garbage. Very nearly incoherent, with hardly any story. It speeds through too many things too quickly, and I shudder to think of a newbie to this franchise picking it up. If it was written for franchise veterans, then a lot of stuff should have been left out so that Alice and Blood's relationship could be developed more. But if it was written for franchise veterans it was also largely unnecessary: this was basically a much sloppier and more condensed version of the first<i> Alice in the Country of Hearts</i> release in English, right down to the scene with Blood and Vivaldi in Blood's garden. It contributed nothing new.<br /><br />There was zero decent relationship development, and it didn't give readers a very good feel for the characters, other than the very basics. It also contradicted itself. It said that Peter abandoned Alice after taking her to Wonderland, but she's with him at the Palace right from the start of the volume.<br /><br />I read this right after <i>My Fanatic Rabbit</i>, and one of the things that struck me was how different Alice seemed. <i>My Fanatic Rabbit</i> was a Yen Press title translated by Ajino Hirami, while <i>The Mad Hatter's Late Night Tea Party</i> was a Seven Seas title translated by Angela Liu (who, if I remember right, might have handled most, or maybe even all, of Seven Seas' <i>Alice in the Country of </i>translations). The Alice of these two volumes had more of a mouth on her than the Alice of <i>My Fanatic Rabbit</i>.<br /><br />At any rate, this was probably the worst Alice and Blood pairing I've read so far. The volumes with this pairing are usually pretty good, if only because they dig into Alice's past more than many of the volumes with other pairings do, but this just felt like a cash grab. It would have been too confusing for a franchise newbie, it didn't offer anything new for franchise veterans, and, even though it introduced sex <i>way </i>earlier on than I'm used to this series doing, even that felt tepid. Unfortunately, the artwork wasn't good enough to carry it either - it felt like a riot of screentones.<br /><br /><b><i>Alice in the Country of Hearts: The Mad Hatter's Late Night Tea Party</i> (manga, vol. 2) story by QuinRose, art by Riko Sakura, translated by Angela Liu</b> - Alice comes back to find Blood threatening Julius. She refuses to go back to the mansion with him but does agree to visit. When she visits, she, Elliot, and the twins decide to have a picnic lunch together (Blood is too "tired" to go). Blood deals with some rival mafia, but not before Alice is kidnapped as bait. She's sure she isn't important enough to Blood for him to come get her, but he does. After that, he finally explains who Vivaldi is to him. The volume ends with Alice trying to figure out what Blood's "type" is: she's worried she's too young-looking for him, not sexy enough.<br /><br />This was a vast improvement over volume 1, but it was still essentially a rehash of the first English-translated <i>Alice in the Country of Hearts</i> release and at least one other entry in the franchise that I can't currently recall.<br /><br />This felt like someone looked at the first volume and said "we need a do-over." The beginning even recapped how Alice arrived in Wonderland. It was kind of weird, actually.<br /><br />This had nicer artwork than the first volume, but story-wise it still crammed a <i>lot </i>into one volume. For example, there were little creepy bits that indicated that Peter and Nightmare were teaming up to keep Alice in Wonderland, steering her to the point of taking her ability to choose away from her. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space to both include this stuff and also explain it, so I imagine it'd be terribly confusing to newbies. Actually, I'd only recommend this to <i>Alice in the County of </i>completists like myself.<br /><br />Am I done with this franchise yet? I think I have a little more to go, but it'd be nice to know how much. I feel like I need a guide of some kind.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-19442946491567782672017-12-09T22:09:00.000-06:002017-12-09T22:09:02.846-06:00REVIEW: Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit (manga, vols. 1-2) story by QuinRose, art by Delico Psyche, scenario by Shinotsuki, translated by Ajino HiramiI have no idea how close I am to finally finishing all the manga in this franchise that's been translated into English. I feel like every time I check there's more.<br /><br />At any rate, I think I've read all the enjoyable stuff, and now this is more about me being able to say "I'm done" than anything. The first volume of <i>My Fanatic Rabbit</i> was mediocre, but I've read worse. In general, I'm not a fan of the ones where Elliot is Alice's love interest because they're either too silly for my tastes and make Alice too focused on her love for Elliot's ears, or they focus too much on Elliot's violent side and make me worry about Alice. This one went in the latter direction, with a little of the former.<br /><br />The second volume left me filled with rage, primarily because I've seen the kind of stuff that was pulled on Alice pulled with a family member. This wasn't even vaguely romantic, and it left me feeling terrible for Alice.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b><i>Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit</i> (manga, vol. 1) story by QuinRose, art by Delico Psyche, scenario by Shinotsuki, translated by Ajino Hirami </b>- Alice decides to stay at the Hatter mansion, even going so far as to get a job there. She slowly becomes closer to Elliot, until the day she witnesses him doing his job (killing people for Blood). That awakens doubts in her, which deepen when Elliot tells her he'll kill her sister for hurting her and making her unhappy. Alice leaves and ends up traveling with Ace to Heart Castle. He gets lost, so she joins up with Peter when he shows up, but Peter ends up locking her up to keep her from leaving. The volume ends with Elliot heading to the castle, and Vivaldi about to order Alice beheaded.<br /><br />I'm really not a fan of the Alice and Elliot pairing. It's either too goofy and focused on Alice's love of Elliot's ears (it often feels like she enjoys tugging Elliot's ears more than she likes him as a person) or too focused in Elliot's violent nature. In this case it's more of the latter. Elliot announcing that he'd kill Alice's sister for making her unhappy was horrifying, and a good reminder that the people in Wonderland have a very different and far more violent way of approaching the world than Alice is used to (that said, there <i>are </i>non-killers in Wonderland - it's one of the reasons why I like the Julius and Alice pairing so much).<br /><br />This volume also had a bit of the ear-tugging stuff that I hate. Alice tugged Elliot's ears until it hurt him, and readers were supposed to think this was cute. I do not. He makes it pretty clear that he doesn't like it, and yet she doesn't stop. Volumes that pair off Elliot and Alice really do tend to highlight the worst in both of the characters.<br /><br />There's a bit in this volume where Nightmare tells Alice "Anyone who meets you will take an interest in you and eventually fall in love with you." I think this is probably supposed to be good and comforting - Alice has gone from a place where the people she loves keep inadvertently hurting her to one where they are guaranteed to love her - but instead it strikes me as being both horrifying and depressing. It probably doesn't help that I played <i>Doki Doki Literature Club!</i> not long before reading this. It really highlights just how awful the "someone is guaranteed to love you" aspect of romance visual novels would be if the characters were actually aware of what was going on.<br /><br />The artwork was at least relatively nice, although the use of screentone was a bit odd.<br /><br /><b><i>Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit</i> (manga, vol. 2) story by QuinRose, art by Delico Psyche, scenario by Shinotsuki, translated by Ajino Hirami </b>- Peter saves Alice from being beheaded by Vivaldi, and Elliot takes Alice back to the mansion. Alice and Elliot are suddenly a lovey dovey couple, but things take a turn for the worse when Alice spends time with Ace and Julius. She learns about the clocks, and that Elliot was once in prison for irreparably breaking his friend's clock. Elliot gets mad at Alice for being chummy with Julius, the man he hates, so Alice decides that she should drink the vial and go back to her world and her sister. However, Nightmare intervenes with a vision of Elliot killing himself after Alice leaves, so she decides to stay.<br /><br />This started off as a mediocre series, featuring one of my least favorite <i>Alice in the Country of </i>pairings, and then took a turn for the much worse. First we have attempted rape on Elliot's part - he begins to force himself on Alice in anger after she spends time with Julius, his enemy. Then we have Nightmare's emotional manipulation of her. Alice was going to leave Wonderland for good, and for a very good reason (a borderline abusive boyfriend). In order to stop her, Nightmare produced a vision of Elliot killing himself out of thin air. It reminded me of the horrible boyfriend a family member of mine used to have, who'd try to get her to stay with him by telling her he'd kill himself if she left.<br /><br />Not only that, the way the story was told was choppy and just plain bad - it went from Elliot taking Alice back to the mansion to them being a couple in the space of a page or so. I also felt that the artwork took a bit of a nosedive, becoming scratchier and less appealing.<br /><br />If this were a horror series, it'd be one thing, but these stories are supposed to be romances, albeit occasionally kind of dark ones. This was garbage.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2094562384038868734.post-51670993026321989482017-12-09T20:58:00.003-06:002017-12-09T20:58:38.692-06:00REVIEW: Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto (manga, vol. 2) by Nami Sano, translated by Adrienne Beck<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t55r-0rKAC4/Wiyh6buMDwI/AAAAAAAADdg/OPCLM092CWEcfKQv-IKv7qKi1X_P6WMRwCLcBGAs/s1600/havent_you_heard_im_sakamoto-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="251" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t55r-0rKAC4/Wiyh6buMDwI/AAAAAAAADdg/OPCLM092CWEcfKQv-IKv7qKi1X_P6WMRwCLcBGAs/s320/havent_you_heard_im_sakamoto-2.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>This is another post-vacation review.<br /><br />Sakamoto tutors Yoshinobu (the bullied kid from volume 1) while deftly avoiding and finally defusing Yoshinobu's amorous mother. Then Sakamoto outwits a teacher bent on believing he's trouble, even managing to add the teacher to his list of admirers due to a kind act he performs. Then there are a few shorter episodes: dealing with a slug in cooking class, drawing a classmate in a way that manages to be both flattering and insulting, and saving a classmate during a fire drill (?). The volume ends with a group of delinquents pursuing Sakamoto and always just missing him. As they try to find him, they hear about his past mysterious exploits. Then there's an incident involving a delinquent trying to pick a fight with Sakamoto and ending up in a bizarre push fight against him.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />I don't know why I requested this. I shouldn't have. I disliked the first volume, which I felt had too much an "uncanny valley" feeling to it to truly be funny. I mean, this series <i>is </i>supposed to be a comedy right? I'm not misunderstanding?<br /><br />I had similar issues while reading this volume. I'm sorry, but Sakamoto makes my skin crawl, and I can't bring myself to laugh at the situations he deals with. I wonder if a different artist would change things. Technically, Sakamoto and the things he does aren't that different from the occasional humorous bits in <i>Black Butler</i>, where Sebastian accomplishes seemingly impossible feats in order to properly serve his master. I <i>love </i>that stuff in <i>Black Butler</i>, but it doesn't work for me at all here.<br /><br />The first part of this volume was particularly awful. Yoshinobu's mother struck me as a pitiful woman, and I disliked that the volume seemed to be asking readers to laugh at her and her efforts to corner Sakamoto. Not only that, she was attempting to molest a teenage boy - not something I'd consider good comedy material.A Library Girlnoreply@blogger.com0